PREFACE. 
ix 
In the journey now before us I must request some; 
exercise of patience during geographical details that 
may be wearisome; at all events, I will adhere to facts, 
and avoid theory as much as possible. 
The Botanist will have ample opportunities of stray¬ 
ing from our path to examine plants with which I 
confess a limited acquaintance. The Ethnologist shall 
have precisely the same experience that I enjoyed, and 
he may either be enlightened or confounded. The 
Geologist will find himself throughout the journey in 
Central Africa among primitive rocks. The Naturalist 
will travel through a grass jungle that conceals much 
that is difficult to obtain : both he and the Sportsman 
will, I trust, accompany me on a future occasion 
through the “ Nile tributaries from Abyssinia,” which 
country is prolific in all that is interesting. The 
Philanthropist,—what shall I promise to induce him to 
accompany me ? I will exhibit a picture of savage 
man precisely as he is; as I saw him ; and as I judged 
him, free from prejudice : painting also, in true colours, 
a picture of the abomination that has been the curse 
of the African race, the slave trade; trusting that 
not only the philanthropist, but every civilized being 
will join in the endeavour to erase that stain from 
disfigured human nature, and thus open the path 
now closed to civilization and missionary enterprise. 
To the Missionary, that noble, self-exiled labourer 
toiling too often in a barren field, I must add the 
word of caution, “AVait!” There can be no hope 
of success until the slave trade shall have ceased to 
exist. 
