GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND. 41 
very humanity of its victims, so that in too 
many cases they soon cease to be men, except 
in form. The abolition of this evil will also 
remove the difficulties which bar the way to the 
legitimate trader in South Africa and the islands 
along this coast, and wffiich at present hinder 
the rapid and sure development of commercial 
activity through the length and breadth of the 
continent. Kemove men and women and chil¬ 
dren from the public markets, once let them cease 
to be saleable commodities, and other merchan¬ 
dise will naturally and necessarily become the 
negotiable basis of barter, and other articles will 
become the medium for the employment and 
circulation of capital and the acquisition of 
wealth. The evil has been reduced and its area 
considerably limited of late years, through the 
devoted energy of the officers and men in our 
ships of war on the Zanzibar station. Much, 
however, remains to be accomplished; and it is 
to Madagascar that we must look for that assist¬ 
ance which will enable us, in a few years per¬ 
haps, to regard the slave-trade of Eastern Africa 
as a phase of life in that region which has passed 
away happily for ever. 
