180 
THE KILIMA-NJAB 0 EXPEDITION. 
follow up the advantage gained by an invasion of the 
enemies’ territory, which I was to utterly harry and 
devastate, and then hand over to Mandara’s keeping. 
In fact he would have liked me to conquer all the 
v 
states of Cagafor him on my own responsibility. This 
I peremptorily declined to do. I explained to him that 
I had only joined in the fight of the day before because 
my own men and goods had been threatened, but that 
I had come to Kilima-njaro not to make war on any 
one, but to go my own way in peace and confine 
myself to the slaughter of the beasts of the field if I 
must kill anything. I also let him know with 
unusual outspokenness that to an English mind 
his policy of continually harrying the states of his 
neighbours in order to supply the Arab caravans 
with slaves, was excessively distasteful, and one 
which would inevitably lose him Sir John Kirk’s 
friendship. 
This reply rather took him by surprise, and for some 
days there was a coolness between us. Then he sent 
for me and delivered a long speech, which was certainly 
one of the cleverest and most casuistic I have ever 
heard from the mouth of an African slave-dealer as an 
argument in favour of selling men into slavery. The 
gist of it was :—“ Here are people who make war on 
me. I defend myself, and carry the war into their 
country, as we did the other day. Very well, a number 
of prisoners are made. What would you have me do 
with them ? Slaughter them ? No; that would be 
displeasing to Erua (God). Return them to my 
enemies ? Then they would only take that as a sign 
of weakness, and attack me once more. Distribute 
them among my own people on my own land P But 
my subjects would themselves protest, and say, 4 If 
