We Appear To Them To Be Red
Rather Than White; And, Though Light Colour Is Admired Among
Themselves, Our Clothing Renders Us Uncouth In Aspect.
Blue eyes
appear savage, and a red beard hideous.
From the numbers of aged
persons we saw on the highlands, and the increase of mental and
physical vigour we experienced on our ascent from the lowlands, we
inferred that the climate was salubrious, and that our countrymen
might there enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit, by
leading the multitude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton,
buaze, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods of
European manufacture; at the same time teaching them, by precept and
example, the great truths of our Holy Religion.
Our stay at the Lake was necessarily short. We had found that the
best plan for allaying any suspicions, that might arise in the minds
of a people accustomed only to slave-traders, was to pay a hasty
visit, and then leave for a while, and allow the conviction to form
among the people that, though our course of action was so different
from that of others, we were not dangerous, but rather disposed to be
friendly. We had also a party at the vessel, and any indiscretion on
their part might have proved fatal to the character of the
Expedition.
The trade of Cazembe and Katanga's country, and of other parts of the
interior, crosses Nyassa and the Shire, on its way to the Arab port,
Kilwa, and the Portuguese ports of Iboe and Mozambique. At present,
slaves, ivory, malachite, and copper ornaments, are the only articles
of commerce. According to information collected by Colonel Rigby at
Zanzibar, and from other sources, nearly all the slaves shipped from
the above-mentioned ports come from the Nyassa district. By means of
a small steamer, purchasing the ivory of the Lake and River above the
cataracts, which together have a shore-line of at least 600 miles,
the slave-trade in this quarter would be rendered unprofitable, - for
it is only by the ivory being carried by the slaves, that the latter
do not eat up all the profits of a trip. An influence would be
exerted over an enormous area of country, for the Mazitu about the
north end of the Lake will not allow slave-traders to pass round that
way through their country. They would be most efficient allies to
the English, and might themselves be benefited by more intercourse.
As things are now, the native traders in ivory and malachite have to
submit to heavy exactions; and if we could give them the same prices
which they at present get after carrying their merchandise 300 miles
beyond this to the Coast, it might induce them to return without
going further. It is only by cutting off the supplies in the
interior, that we can crush the slave-trade on the Coast. The plan
proposed would stop the slave-trade from the Zambesi on one side and
Kilwa on the other; and would leave, beyond this tract, only the
Portuguese port of Inhambane on the south, and a portion of the
Sultan of Zanzibar's dominion on the north, for our cruisers to look
after.
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