Many Had Ended Their Misery Under
Shady Trees - Others Under Projecting Crags In The Hills - While Others
Lay In Their
Huts, with closed doors, which when opened disclosed the
mouldering corpse with the poor rags round the loins - the skull
Fallen off the pillow - the little skeleton of the child, that had
perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large skeletons. The
sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a well peopled valley,
now literally strewn with human bones, forced the conviction upon us,
that the destruction of human life in the middle passage, however
great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and made us feel
that unless the slave-trade - that monster iniquity, which has so long
brooded over Africa - is put down, lawful commerce cannot be
established.
We believed that, if it were possible to get a steamer upon the Lake,
we could by her means put a check on the slavers from the East Coast;
and aid more effectually still in the suppression of the slave-trade,
by introducing, by way of the Rovuma, a lawful traffic in ivory. We
therefore unscrewed the "Lady Nyassa" at a rivulet about five hundred
yards below the first cataract, and began to make a road over the
thirty-five or forty miles of land portage, by which to carry her up
piecemeal. After mature consideration, we could not imagine a more
noble work of benevolence, than thus to introduce light and liberty
into a quarter of this fair earth, which human lust has converted
into the nearest possible resemblance of what we conceive the
infernal regions to be - and we sacrificed much of our private
resources as an offering for the promotion of so good a cause.
The chief part of the labour of road-making consisted in cutting down
trees and removing stones. The country being covered with open
forest, a small tree had to be cut about every fifty or sixty yards.
The land near the river was so very much intersected by ravines, that
search had to be made, a mile from its banks, for more level ground.
Experienced Hottentot drivers would have taken Cape wagons without
any other trouble than that of occasionally cutting down a tree. No
tsetse infested this district, and the cattle brought from Johanna
flourished on the abundant pasture. The first half-mile of road led
up, by a gradual slope, to an altitude of two hundred feet above the
ship, and a sensible difference of climate was felt even there. For
the remainder of the distance the height increased, - till, at the
uppermost cataract, we were more than 1200 feet above the sea. The
country here, having recovered from the effects of the drought, was
bright with young green woodland, and mountains of the same
refreshing hue. But the absence of the crowds, which had attended us
as we carried up the boat, when the women followed us for miles with
fine meal, vegetables, and fat fowls for sale, and the boys were ever
ready for a little job - and the oppressive stillness bore heavily on
our spirits.
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