TRAVELS IN AFRICAN 
qilin operation, and when they are sought for 
vanish in the air, and " leave not a wreck be- 
hind.'* The consequence of these wars is, that 
during the precarious conquests of these chiefs, 
their whole employment is plunder, and where 
that cannot be procured the forfeiture — is life. 
AH order and morality is upset, all right is un- 
known, and the effect must be the degradation 
of society and the dismemberment of empire in 
that ill-fated portion of the world. 
To this cause also may be attributed in a great 
measure the existence (at least to the present 
extent) of slavery, for that religion not only gives 
an apparently divine authority to the practice, 
but instils into the minds of its proselytes a con- 
viction or belief, that all who are not or will not 
become Mohamedans were intended by Provi- 
dence and their Prophet to be the slaves and 
property of those who do. It is much to be 
regretted that those valuable and indefatigable 
friends of Africa who have been for years labour- 
ing towards civilization on the coast, where much 
has been done by the pious labours and ex- 
ample of the missionaries from the Church and 
other Societies, are so circumstanced, from the 
many difficulties which the climate itself pre- 
sents and the rapid spread of the Mohamedan 
faith, that they are unable to penetrate beyond 
the influence of our settlements on the coast. 
