Savage Africa, 
17 
a man possesses. The usual price for a healthy young man 
or woman is about 15, but in case of scarcity or interfer- 
ence with the slave supply, the price rises to ;^2 5. Among 
the Churches founded by the Church Missionary Society, the 
following rule was adopted, and in some cases found to act 
as a check : " After much careful consideration the Society 
has decided that no Christian should purchase a slave, and 
that those who purchased them before their conversion 
should afford them time and opportunity to buy out their 
freedom, and in the meantime should provide for their 
Christian instruction/' Still, in spite of checks and laws, 
the system has grown so greatly, that it is asserted by some 
who have means of knowing, that at the present day there 
is an increase rather than a decrease in the number of 
slaves. The Church Missionary Society has therefore quite 
recently decided, that any member of a Church in con- 
nection with that Society holding slaves, shall cease to be 
a member, and that all grants-in-aid shall be withheld from 
native Churches which countenance the practice. This is 
consistent with English feeling, and with New Testament 
Christianity. 
The agents of the Congo mission find that they must 
ransom chUfl-slaves in order to have any little ones to teach, 
or to train as they want. From to will buy a boy 
or girl on the Congo River. Several children have been 
ransomed from cruel bondage in this way, and are now 
under Christian training, in order to be fitted for instructors 
and teachers, another day. 
Dr. Livingstone proposed to open up the country, to 
establish trading centres, to encourage the natives to culti- 
vate articles of commerce, and by these means to second 
the efforts of Christian missionaries in suppressing slavery. 
Native labour must be the agent employed in developing 
