THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
405 
you want me to put down the slave trade, you must 
send plenty of ships,” — for the commerce which we 
assured him would be moi'e advantageous. By failing 
to do this we have undoubtedly broken the treaty and 
have justified his return to the Slave Trade. 
The deadly nature of the climate would seem to be 
a sufficient excuse, to the natives as well as to our- 
selves, for not continuing the enterprise with Euro- 
peans, although it may be questioned whether the 
“ experiment of penetrating by the Niger to the inte- 
rior of Africa has yet been fairly tried*,” owing princi- 
pally to the lateness of the season when the expe- 
ditions have commenced the ascent of the river, — 
by which they had to encounter both the unhealthiest 
season and the most difficult time for navigating. 
The intelligent native chiefs and headmen with 
whom we conferred, who had unbounded confidence in 
our power, — not lessened in any respect by the mag- 
nificence of our promises, — although they were eye- 
witnesses of our sufferings in the unfortunate attempt, 
might fairly ask if the white man had exhausted all 
his resources ; — if, one method having failed, no other 
could be devised by his superior wisdom 1 
It remains, therefore, either to make the tacit but 
humiliating acknowledgment that the white man has 
no further resources, after all his brilliant promises, — 
leaving the worse than useless effects of the Niger 
Captain Allen’s Report to Lord Stanley. 
