as enough to knock down a
horse."

"It was horrible," I said in sympathy.

"No doubt it were all that," replied my friend the pensioner. "But from
what I saw out there I do believe the very attempts our government make
to put down the slave-trade only increases the evils of the poor
wretches we are trying to liberate."

"How is that?" I asked.

"Why, you see, when the traffic used to be permitted, as it was once for
a period of eight months in the year, just as you have at home a set
time for shooting game, the slaves used to be carried in large dhows,
more comfortably, and well supplied with food and water in their passage
from the mainland to Pemba and Zanzibar; but when our cruisers began to
look out for them and stopped the trade, no matter whether it was in the
dry season or not, then the Arabs would pack 'em up in small craft that
could lie hid in the creeks or shallows of the coast and smuggle the
niggers in during the night-time, for these Arabs are just like cats,
and can see in the dark when our men couldn't perceive their hands afore
their face. Once upon a time, when I first went on the station, we used
to capture good big dhows that were of a hundred and eighty tons burden
and upwards; now our men only get hold of little Mtpe dhows that are
hardly worth taking--I suppose you know, sir, as how we get a bounty or
prize-money, according to the size of the vessels and the number of
slaves we liberate?"

"Yes," said I, "I'm aware of that, as I have noticed advertisements in
the _London Gazette_ about the distribution of the bounty for such and
such slave-dhows `captured by the boats of HMS _London_' or some other
cruiser named. How are these dhows built?"

"Of a sort of close hard wood like African oak, but harder than our
English timber of the same nature. The planks of the small Mtpe dhows
are sewn together with a thread-like stuff they get from the reeds in
the lagoons. They are built broad and shallow, with a keel deepening
towards the stern, almost like a wedge, so that they can turn quickly.
They're good sea-boats, too, and can sail almost up into the wind's eye,
with their large lateen sails, which are cut something like an old-
fashioned leg of mutton, or short tack lug. The stem of them rises high
out of the water, having a poop on it, which is thatched over with
matting and banana leaves; and altogether they don't look unlike a
Chinese junk. Some of the bigger dhows, which are used as wa