478 
SLAVERY. 
[chap. XVIII. 
the stations have been forsaken;—their pious labour 
was hopeless, and the devoted priests died upon their 
barren field. What curse lies so heavily upon Africa 
and bows her down beneath all other nations ? It is 
the infernal traffic in slaves,—a trade so hideous, that 
every heart of slave and owner becomes deformed, and 
shrinks like a withered limb incapable of action. The 
natural love of offspring, shared with the human race 
by the most savage beast, ceases to warm the heart of 
the wretched slave :—why should the mother love her 
child, if it is born to become the property of her owner ? 
—to be sold as soon as it can exist without the mother s 
care. Why should the girl be modest, when she knows 
that she is the actual property, the slave, of every 
purchaser ? Slavery murders the sacred feeling of love, 
that blessing that cheers the lot of the poorest man, 
that spell that binds him to his wife, and child, and home. 
Love cannot exist with slavery—the mind becomes 
brutalised to an extent that freezes all those tender 
feelings that Nature has implanted in the human heart 
to separate it from the beast; and the mind, despoiled 
of all noble instincts, descends to hopeless brutality. 
Thus is Africa accursed : nor can she be raised to any 
scale approaching to civilization until the slave-trade 
shall be totally suppressed. The first step necessary 
to the improvement of the savage tribes of the White 
Nile is the annihilation of the slave-trade. Until 
this be effected, no legitimate commerce can be estab¬ 
lished ; neither is there an opening for missionary enter¬ 
prise ;—the country is sealed and closed against all 
improvement. 
Nothing would be easier than to suppress this 
infamous traffic, were the European Powers in earnest. 
Egypt is in favour of slavery. I have never seen a 
Government official who did not in argument uphold 
slavery as an institution absolutely necessary to Egypt, 
—thus any demonstration made against the slave-trade 
by the Government of that country will be simply a pro 
forma movement to blind the European Powers ;—their 
