In such a case, the slave so
freed in all probability would commence life afresh by taking service
as a porter with other merchants, and in the end would raise sufficient
capital to commence trading himself--first in slaves, because they are
the most easily got, and then in ivory. All his accumulations would then
go to the Zanzibar market, or else to slavers looking out off the coast.
Slavery begets slavery. To catch slaves is the first thought of every
chief in the interior; hence fights and slavery impoverish the land, and
that is the reason both why Africa does not improve, and why we find men
of all tribes and tongues on the coast. The ethnologist need only go
to Zanzibar to become acquainted with all the different tribes to the
centre of the continent on that side, or to Congo to find the other half
south of the equator there.

Some few freed slaves take service in vessels, of which they are
especially fond; but most return to Africa to trade in slaves and ivory.
All slaves learn the coast language, called at Zanzibar Kisuahili; and
therefore the traveller, if judicious in his selections, could find
there interpreters to carry him throughout the eastern half of South
Africa. To the north of the equator the system of language entirely
changes.

Laziness is inherent in these men, for which reason, although extremely
powerful, they will not work unless compelled to do so. Having no God,
in the Christian sense of the term, to fear or worship, they have no
love for truth, honour, or honesty. Controlled by no government, nor yet
by home ties, they have no reason to think of or look to the future. Any
venture attracts them when hard-up for food; and the more roving it is,
the better they like it. The life of the sailor is most particularly
attractive to the freed slave; for he thinks, in his conceit, that he is
on an equality with all men when once on the muster-rolls, and then he
calls all his fellow-Africans "savages." Still the African's peculiarity
sticks to him: he has gained no permanent good. The association of white
men and the glitter of money merely dazzle him. He apes like a monkey
the jolly Jack Tar, and spends his wages accordingly. If chance brings
him back again to Zanzibar, he calls his old Arab master his father, and
goes into slavery with as much zest as ever.

I have spoken of these freed men as if they had no religion. This
is practically true, though theoretically not so; for the Arabs, on
circumc