THE SLAVE-TBADE. 205 groaned. If their hopes are to be disappointed, why have permitted the slave war, why have allowed the slaughter of thousands, the sack of villages, the devastation of the land, and all the atrocities which attend a war of that description ?

Unless some definite result should ensue, far better to have spared this indescribable misery, and never to have given a taste of freedom, only to snatch it ruthlessly and cruelly away.

In all ages slavery has existed in some countries ; but years ago the fiat of the Christian nations of the world went forth that it must cease. In the New World, and on the Western Shores of Africa, its abolition has been accomplished. Not so in Eastern and Central Africa, and why ? Has the edict been revoked? Have the hearts of Christian nations turned to stone? How is it that a deaf ear seems to be still turned to the cry of those who are bound fast in misery and iron ?

In the regions of Central Africa the efi'ect of the slave-trade on the native tribes practically is extermination. Where former travellers have seen fertile lands and happy contented inhabitants, we found only dreary uncultivated wastes ; while the once teeming population is reduced to a few wretched creatures who have been so down-trodden and crushed, that their existence seems to be lower than that of the wild beasts who lurk in their dense forests; while large tracts of country have