The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE.

Dr. Livingstone has addressed the following letter to
he Editor of the Times :

Sir,--Having in former years imbibed the idea, from
speeches made in Parliament, and from articles in news-
papers similar to that in your leader of the 24th, that our
squadron on the West Coast of Africa, so far from dimi-
nishing, rather increased the evils of the slave-trade, I went
to Angola in 1854 fully expecting to find, as you remark,
" that this nefarious traffic still subsists as much as ever."
When, however, I came in co'itact with the Portuguese
who had actually been engaged in the trade, and heard
them refer to it invariably in the past tense, my confidence
was somewhat shaken in the soundness of Parliamentary
information. " Such a man was rich," said they, "in the
time of the slave-trade." And when I saw boys of 10 or 12
years of age B°l4 for about 12s. each within 150 miles of
the coast, and heard the pathetic lamentation, "Ah ! we
could have got 60 or 70 dollars for these lads in the time
of the slave-trade," together with the frank confession by
those who, of all others, ought to know best that the prime
agents in the repression of the traffic were the English
cruisers, I was forced to a different conclusion from that to
which the really very plausible statements of various

- Then, agair,fsaw crowds of carriers (carregadores) on
the road from the interior to the coast. These carriers are
compelled by the Government of Loanda to convey mer-
chandise at the rate of 2d. a-day. On examining this system
of compulsory labour I found it to be a direct evidence of
the efficiency of our cruisers in repressing the slave-
trade.
increasedhr ae d
Russian
ssT ahtnou
wa
t,
ha prever,
aatl
rieitonhugest
mh t
eiotr
chlhBardb,
iewsfeohorefe n
At
the
nhege
ob
Irsaeqawukaai dsn rgberno
oatu wg
hoa
fts
afetwhealcaovaesst byb slaves. The merchantsood;andpurchari wedeinvtorilan
ivory
and
with
di
bees-waxdwnto with slaves sufficient to carry them. All were
i
in
n t
sehnidpepdi
nf
go rt ehxe por
human t i
t a on,
cargo
end tthhearne
thewas l no
loads
odms
theyor e difficulty
carried.
g
m en
to
oa tio
thisng a
speciesonfz of slaves marched down to
th forcee
ofi
impressment
etshs the
ent coast
to the
supply Go-
tthe place of the slaves which were previously all exported.
The
tn
mos
the coast, so common previous to 1845, is now never seen;
and if we glance at the Custom-house
returns we find that
the receipts for head money gradually diminished from
that year till 1850, when none was received. This seed-
othe
flee of a largo revenue by the Portuguese Government
shows that we are not the only people who have made
efforts to put down the odious traffic; and if half the
h
officials
civilly
aser'
sbeen t t oto
et
hAen Angola
Go-
vernor
the trade would have entirely ceased. A few incorrigible
one 3 t yo
fo of purposea b
aha had
characterisedvehichyu
slave-dealers, winked at by
governors of Loanda who in
words would outmatch General Concha in strenuous endea-
vours to annihilate the traffic, have continued to export a
few loads annually from certain ports north of Loanda. But
this has been a difficult game to play, inasmuch as their
own countrymen willingly give information to the crai-
:keen the:a resortedc augmentation
of a large
crui-
sers for a small consideration and being obliged to con-
ceal their shipments from both parties they stand, as
it were, between two fires. So far from brisk is the
export trade that I once travelled in company with three
native slavedealers who had eight women in a chain away
from the coast towards the middle of the country to tell
them for ivory. One of their owners said "that the English
cruisers alone prevented their being sent across the sea."
And as for the alleged increase of cruelty in the middle
passage, any one who reads how slaves were treated when
the slave trade was legal will see that it was often even
then as bad as it could be. It is of such a heathenish, or
rather fiendish, nature that men engaged in it are some-
how led to treat their fellow-men immeasurably worse
than they would animals of equal or inferior value.
Notwithstanding the very decided influence of the crui-
sera on the parts I visited, there seems to have bcen an in- I
crease in the traffic since the strength of the cruisers was
reduced by the Russian war, and this increase has taken
lace in the rivers north of Angola. The prostitution of
place
American flag is a serious drawback to our efforts at
suppression. Yet it must be borne in mind that we hear
more about it nowadays; and the increase of our know-
ledge of an abuse does not imply an actual augmentation
t. ' •
of the evil. While our att en ion is directed to greater num-
bers of slaves being imported into Cuba we must not shut
our eyes to the fact of another market being closed altoge-
ther to the trade, nor forget that the present posture of
Brazil is owing to the moral influence of Great Britain.
Cuba would, wore the trade open, takeandso,ooo
kill off
slaves annually. About two-thirds
block
presentade. Th twithanother
a ,
her shores by the
large market closed to the traffic, is surely not an ignoble
failure.
I have thus ventured to state my conviction in favour
formed, as it
of our present system, was, from personal
of
Con and in the teeth a strong bias to the observe r ,
accordine• to
con-
trary, that you may, . you custom, and if you
't advisable, give this to your readers by way
should deem i
of helping them to both sides of the question. It is not to
be supposed for a moment that the present system of
coercion will result in a radical
vation by the Africans on their own soil of the raw mate-
rials of our manufactures and the influence of Christian
civilisation alone will effect a permanent suppression of the
slave-trade. But all hope of this must be given up if the
coast tribes are to be hounded on by Europeans to hunt
down the defenceless inland inhabitants on the absurd
promoting " free emigration." It is no more
pretence of
delight in
true that Africans take hunting, buying and
selling each other than that the English glory in hanging
themselves in November. I know that is the case through-
out the interior, and I was sorry at the cause of a different
state of things on
the borders of civilisation. But we aro
ignorant of the sources whence statements such as that
referred to arise. From meeting it in various quarters,
and more especially in the mouths of slaveholders, or
would-be slave employers, I am inclined to think that both
it and that about the inefficiency of her Majesty's cruisers
have bad their origin in those who are, directly or indi-
rectly, abettors of slavery, and that they are promulgated
by many
who,
like nayseif, had not the means of testing
their truth,

SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY.—In consequence of the
severe pressure on the money market, and the difficulty
of obtaining money, it has been proposed to give up a
considerable portion of the above line, and only to carry
out the construction of the railway from its intended
junction with the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhamp-
ton at liartlebury to Booley in Shropshire.