36 
Central Africa. 
generosity of an Englishman and a philanthropist, he pro- 
tested against it, laying down his life in the end on behalf 
of the children of Africa. It has been estimated that 
around Lake Nyassa alone, the loss of population, on 
account of the slave traffic, exceeded fifteen thousand 
annually, while Dr. Livingstone calculated that not one- 
tenth of the captured victims ever survived the journey to 
the coast. 
In West Africa, other forms of slavery prevail. Beside 
the general practice of domestic slavery, there is carried on 
a system of " pawns.'' This system enables a man who has 
by extravagance, or poverty, got into debt, to pawn his 
servants, relations, or children. The interest on the debt, 
or loan, is paid by the services of the pawned slave, but he 
himself remains in a state of slavery, till the debt is dis- 
charged or the loan is paid. In this way parents who would 
not consent deliberately to sell their children into slavery, 
pawn them, with the result, that when death or fresh mis- 
fortune happens, the slavery becomes irremediable. This 
system, it need not be said, works untold mischief, for the 
lender always looks to the chance of securing the services 
of the pawn for life, as his security and repayment. Mission 
annals from the west of the continent, contain many sad 
histories of the hardship and suffering caused by this 
practice. 
Domestic slavery is the curse of the mission Churches on 
the West African coast. It has been observed that when 
a missionary stands up to address a congregation there, he 
views a population which is almost wholly composed of either 
slaves, or slave-holders. In the country around Abeokuta, 
some men will own hundreds of slaves, not so much for sale, 
as for the keeping up of their own importance, for wealth 
and importance are reckoned by the number of slaves which 
