Chap. XXXTI. 
THE AUTHOR’S OBJECTS. 
675 
that a vessel by going thither would return laden with ivory and 
gold-dust. The Portuguese of Tete pick up all the merchandize 
of the tribes in their vicinity, and, though I came out by tra¬ 
versing the people with whom the Portuguese have been at war, 
it does not follow that it will be perfectly safe for others to go in 
whose goods may be a stronger temptation to cupidity than any¬ 
thing I possessed. Wlien we get beyond the hostile population 
mentioned, we reach a very different race. On the latter my 
chief hopes at present rest. All of them, however, are willing 
and anxious to engage in trade, and, while eager for this, none 
have ever been encouraged to cultivate the raw materials of 
commerce. Their country is well adapted for cotton; and I 
venture to entertain the hope that by distributing seeds of better 
kinds than that which is found indigenous, and stimulating the 
natives to cultivate it by affording them the certainty of a market 
for all they may produce, we may engender a feeling of mutual 
dependence between them and ourselves. I have a two-fold 
object in view, and believe that, by guiding our missionary la¬ 
bours so as to benefit our own country, we shall thereby more 
effectually and permanently benefit the heathen. Seven years 
were spent at Kolobeng in mstructing my friends there; but 
the country being incapable of raising materials for exportation, 
when the Boers made their murderous attack and scattered the 
tribe for a season, none S 3 nnpathised except a few Christian 
friends. Had the people of Kolobeng been in the habit of 
raising the raw materials of English commerce, the outrage 
would have been felt in England ; or, what is more likely to 
have been the case, the people would have raised themselves in 
the scale by barter, and have become, like the Basutos of Mo- 
shesh and people of Kuruman, possessed of fire-arms, and the 
Boers would never have made the attack at all. We ought to 
encourage the Africans to cultivate for our markets, as the most 
effectual means, next to the Gospel, of their elevation. 
It is in the hope of working out this idea that I propose the 
formation of stations on the Zambesi beyond the Portuguese 
territory, but having communication through them with the 
coast. A chain of stations admitting of easy and speedy inter¬ 
course, such as might be formed along the flank of the eastern 
ridge, would be in a favomrable position for carrying out the 
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