On Our Return To The Kongone, We Found That H.M.S. "Lynx"
Had Caught Some Of These Very Slaves In A Dhow; For A Woman Told Us
She First Saw Us At Mosauka's, And That The Arabs Had Fled For Fear
Of An UNCANNY Sort Of Basungu.
This is one of the great slave-paths from the interior, others cross
the Shire a little below, and some on the lake itself.
We might have
released these slaves but did not know what to do with them
afterwards. On meeting men, led in slave-sticks, the Doctor had to
bear the reproaches of the Makololo, who never slave, "Ay, you call
us bad, but are we yellow-hearted, like these fellows - why won't you
let us choke them?" To liberate and leave them, would have done but
little good, as the people of the surrounding villages would soon
have seized them, and have sold them again into slavery. The
Manganja chiefs sell their own people, for we met Ajawa and slave-
dealers in several highland villages, who had certainly been
encouraged to come among them for slaves. The chiefs always seemed
ashamed of the traffic, and tried to excuse themselves. "We do not
sell many, and only those who have committed crimes." As a rule the
regular trade is supplied by the low and criminal classes, and hence
the ugliness of slaves. Others are probably sold besides criminals,
as on the accusation of witchcraft. Friendless orphans also
sometimes disappear suddenly, and no one inquires what has become of
them.
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