nd wide. The Portuguese Governor
was acquainted with them, as well as the ministers of justice, but no
one put forth a hand to punish the monster, or to protect his slaves.

But vengeance overtook him at last. On his way down the Zambesi he shot
one of his men. The others, roused to irresistible fury, sprang upon
him and strangled him.

_Then_, indeed, the Governor and Magistrates were roused to administer
"justice!" They had allowed this fiend to murder slaves at his will,
but no sooner had the slaves turned on and killed their master than
ceaseless energy and resolution were displayed in punishing those who
slew him. Soldiers were sent out in all directions; some of the
canoe-men were shot down like wild beasts, the rest were recaptured and
publicly whipped to death!

Reader, this is "domestic slavery." This is what Portugal and Zanzibar
claim the right to practise. This is what Great Britain has for many
years declined to interfere with. This is the curse with which Africa
is blighted at the present day in some of her fairest lands, and this is
what Portugal has decreed shall not terminate in what she calls her
African dominions for some years to come. In other words, it has been
coolly decreed by that weakest of all the European nations, that
slavery, murder, injustice, and every other conceivable and
unmentionable vice and villainy shall still, for some considerable time,
continue to be practised on the men, women, and children of Africa!

Higher up the Shire river, the travellers saw symptoms of recent
distress among the people, which caused them much concern. Chimbolo, in
particular, was rendered very anxious by the account given of the famine
which prevailed still farther up the river, and the numerous deaths that
had taken place in consequence.

The cause of the distress was a common one, and easily explained.
Slave-dealers had induced the Ajawa, a warlike tribe, to declare war
against the people of the Manganja highlands. The Ajawa had done this
before, and were but too ready to do it again. They invaded the land,
captured many of the young people, and slew the aged. Those who escaped
to the jungle found on their return that their crops were destroyed.
Little seed remained in their possession, and before that was planted
and grown, famine began to reduce the ranks, already thinned by war.

Indications of this sad state of things became more numerous as the
travellers advanced. Few natives a