East African Slavery, 
preying at the heart of Africa, It is important to 
keep the knowledge of this fact alive, and it is there- 
fore that we feel called upon to write this chapter. 
It will be sufficient, however, under present circum- 
stances, and for the present purpose, to place the 
main facts and the leading features of the system 
before the reader, without entering into the innumer- 
able details associated therewith. 
We will first call attention to the source of supply. 
The tract of country drawn upon in order to meet 
the demands of the trade is enormous, embracing in 
its widest extent quite one-fourth of the entire African 
continent ; that is to say, all the territories enclosed, 
on the one hand, by the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, 
and a part of the Mediterranean; and, on the other, 
by the course of the Nile, a line running behind or 
west of the Nyanza and Tanganika lakes, reaching as 
far south as the lake Nyassa, with the Zambezi as its 
southern boundary. But the East African slave-trade 
proper receives its supplies from a portion of this 
immense tract, which may be divided into three 
parts : first, the southern district, or all the regions 
between Kiloa, the Zambezi, and the lake Nyassa ; 
secondly, a central one, or all the lands lying between 
Zanzibar and the Tanganika; and, thirdly, a northern 
one, the countries between Mombasa and Barawa, 
and the shores of the Victoria Nyanza. The tribes 
occupying this area are innumerable, and need not be 
repeated. All are not equally involved, simply because 
they are not all equally accessible. The extent to 
which any of them become the victims of the traffic 
depends greatly upon such contingencies as war and 
famine; for no well-to-do, peace-enjoying people would 
