THROUGH ZAMBESIA. 
401 
distant and dreaded blood-stained sea ; for since his 
childhood’s days, the hideous story has been driven into 
his ears, telling of the white man’s feast on the fattened 
flesh of the captive slave. Nearly all the natives have 
the common story that the white man is cannibalistic in 
his humours. 
When first captured or sold, the slave’s star of hope 
has not altogether set. Many escape, to fall perhaps 
into other traps. 
But when the 
dreaded branch 
encircles their 
neck, their doom 
is sealed; the 
faintest gleam of 
hope which may 
have lightened 
their heavy 
hearts, is then 
for ever extin¬ 
guished. At such 
a time a crowd 
of the most 
fearfully fantastic 
visions that can be 
raised by the imagi¬ 
native mind must 
fill the brain with 
heated horror. Happily, 
ivory hunters. however, with him 
mental misery is short¬ 
lived, for fortunately the black slave is a philoso¬ 
pher, and when the first great terror is over, he 
submits with calm and careless abandonment to the 
harsh conditions which have overtaken him. Poor 
creature! 
I am not alone in thinking that in this wretched traffic 
in human lives there are horrors sufficient to cause the 
most devout to question the existence of mercy. It seems 
cruel that men should be begotten and should live with 
