134 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
Chap. XXV. 
one of the most glorious achievements of English 
discovery, bought with the lives of so many enter- 
prising men. But it seems that the English are 
more apt to perform a great deed than to follow up 
its consequences, After they have opened this noble 
river to the knowledge of Europe, frightened by the 
sacrifice of a few lives, instead of using it themselves 
for the benefit of the nations of the interior, they 
have allowed it to fall into the hands of the American 
slave-dealers, who have opened a regular annual 
slave-trade with those very regions, while the En- 
glish seem not to have even the slightest idea of such 
a traffic going on. Thus American produce, brought 
in large quantities to the market of Nupe, has begun 
to inundate Central Africa, to the great damage of 
the commerce and the most unqualified scandal of 
the Arabs, who think that the English, if they would, 
could easily prevent it. For this is not a legitimate 
commerce ; it is nothing but slave-traffic on a large 
scale, the Americans taking nothing in return for 
their merchandise and their dollars but slaves, be- 
sides a small quantity of natron. On this painful 
subject I have written repeatedly to H. M.'s consul 
in Tripoli, and to H. M.'s government, and I have 
spoken energetically about it to Lord Palmerston 
since my return. I principally regret in this respect 
the death of Mr. Richardson, who, in his eloquent 
language, would have dealt worthily with this ques- 
tion. But even from his unfinished journals as they 
have been published, it is clear that, during his short 
