428 
THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
Egga, for instance, the high priest called a meeting of 
all the principal inhabitants on the subject, at -which it 
was readily agreed to furnish us with men, money, and 
provisions to any extent, — in which all the towns and 
villages would cheerfully have joined, — if we would re- 
main and protect them from the Filatahs, — if we would 
undertake to ‘ clean the road.’ The accomplishment of 
which would be as easy as it was desirable. We pointed 
out the impossibility, in the then exhausted state of 
our resources, for us to comply with their wishes, hut 
held out hopes that at no distant period they might 
be attended to; and, although they have not been in 
a formal manner laid at the foot of the British throne, 
by ambassadors from this oppressed people, praying 
for a defensive alliance, the appeal is not the less forci- 
ble ; and it comes from a people who, of all others in 
Africa, would, from their industrious habits, most 
amply repay the protection afforded to them. 
Captain Trotter, in his short intercourse with the 
Chief of Egga, found him so completely under the in- 
fluence of the Filatahs, many of whom were, as spies 
about his court, that he dared not openly to discuss the 
subject of the abolition of the Slave Trade, though at 
a private interview he ardently expressed his wishes 
in furtherance of our objeef^h He doubted the concur- 
rence of the Filatahs, as they are too much interested 
in the maintenance of disorder; and he would not 
* See page 99, vol. li. 
