time
before Marizano, as we have already said, and having left the Englishmen
to the care of the half-caste, chiefly because he did not desire their
company, although he had no objection to the ransom, Yoosoof proceeded
over the same track which we have already described in part, leaving a
bloody trail behind him.

It is a fearful track, of about 500 miles in length, that which lies
between the head of Lake Nyassa and the sea-coast at Kilwa. We have no
intention of dragging the reader over it to witness the cruelties and
murders that were perpetrated by the slavers, or the agonies endured by
the slaves. Livingstone speaks of it as a land of death, of desolation,
and dead men's bones. And no wonder, for it is one of the main arteries
through which the blood of Africa flows, like the water of natural
rivers, to the sea. The slave-gangs are perpetually passing eastward
through it--perpetually dropping four-fifths of their numbers on it as
they go. Dr Livingstone estimates that, in some cases, not more than
_one-tenth_ of the slaves captured reach the sea-coast alive. It is
therefore rather under than over-stating the case to say that out of
every hundred starting from the interior, _eighty_ perish on the road.

Yoosoof left with several thousands of strong and healthy men, women,
and children--most of them being children--he arrived at Kilwa with only
eight hundred. The rest had sunk by the way, either from exhaustion or
cruel treatment, or both. The loss was great; but as regards the trader
it could not be called severe, because the whole gang of slaves cost him
little--some of them even nothing!--and the remaining eight hundred
would fetch a good price. They were miserably thin, indeed, and
exhibited on their poor, worn, and travel-stained bodies the evidence of
many a cruel castigation; but Yoosoof knew that a little rest and good
feeding at Kilwa would restore them to some degree of marketable value,
and at Zanzibar he was pretty sure of obtaining, in round numbers, about
10 pounds a head for them, while in the Arabian and Persian ports he
could obtain much more, if he chose to pass beyond the treaty-protected
water at Lamoo, and run the risk of being captured by British cruisers.
It is "piracy" to carry slaves north of Lamoo. South of that point for
hundreds of miles, robbery, rapine, murder, cruelty, such as devils
could not excel if they were to try, is a "domestic institution" with
which Britons are pled