480 CENTRAL AFRICA OPENED TO NAVIGATION, [chap. xvm. 
with two steamers cruising on the river, not a slave 
could descend the White Nile. 
Should the slave-trade be suppressed, there will be a 
good opening for the ivory trade; the conflicting 
trading parties being withdrawn, and the interest of 
the trade exhibited by a single company, the natives 
would no longer be able to barter ivory for cattle ; thus 
they would be forced to accept other goods in exchange. 
The newly-discovered Albert Lake opens the centre of 
Africa to navigation. Steamers ascend from Khartoum 
to Gondokoro in latitude 4° 55'. Seven days’ march 
south from that station, the navigable portion of the 
Nile is reached, where vessels can ascend direct to the 
Albert lake,—thus an enormous extent of country is 
opened to navigation, and Manchester goods and 
various other articles would find a ready market in 
exchange for ivory, at a prodigious profit, as in those 
newly-discovered regions ivory has a merely nominal 
value. Beyond this commencement of honest trade, 
I cannot offer a suggestion, as no produce of the 
country except ivory could afford the expense of 
transport to Europe. If Africa is to be civilized, it 
must be effected by commerce, which once established, 
will open the way for missionary labour ; but all ideas 
of commerce, improvement, and the advancement of 
the African race that philanthropy could suggest must 
be discarded until the traffic in slaves shall have ceased 
to exist. 
Should the slave-trade be suppressed, a field would 
be opened, the extent of which I will not attempt to 
suggest, as the future would depend upon the good 
government of countries now devoted to savage anarchy 
and confusion. 
Any Government that would insure security would 
be the greatest blessing, as the perpetual hostilities 
among the various tribes prevent an extension of 
cultivation. The sower knows not who will reap, thus 
he limits his crop to his bare necessities. 
The ethnology of Central Africa is completely beyond 
