from the Gambia on the West, to Begharmi on the East; and from the Desert on the North, to the Gulf of Guinea on the South.

Thus, I have suggested two distinct kinds of preparatory measures.

1st. An augmentation of the naval force employed in the suppression of the Slave Trade, and the concentration of that force on the coast of Africa, thus forming a chain of vessels from Gambia to Angola.

2ndly. A corresponding chain of treaties with native powers in the interior, pledging them to act in concert with us; to suppress the Slave Trade in their own territory; to prevent slaves from being carried through their dominions, and, at the same time, to afford all needful facility and protection for the transport of legitimate merchandise. Thus, by creating obstacles which have not heretofore existed, in the conveyance of negroes to the coast, and by increasing the hazard of capture after embarkation, I cannot but anticipate that we shall greatly increase the costs and multiply the risks of the Slave Trade.

If I am asked, whether I expect thus to effect its total abolition, I answer distinctly, No :-such measures may reduce, or even suspend, but they cannot eradicate the evil. If we succeed in establishing a blockade of the coast, together with a confederacy on shore, and proceed no further, it will still be doubtful, as it has been in our former operations, whether more of good or of evil will be effected ;— good, by the degree of restraint imposed on the traffic,

C

or evil, by rendering what remains concealed and contraband; and when I recur to the fearful aggravation of the sufferings of the slaves, which has already arisen from this cause, I am almost disposed to think that it were better to do nothing than to do only this.

I propose the two measures I have just named, not as a remedy, but as an expedient necessary for a time, in order that the real remedy may be applied in the most effectual manner. For a time, the dangers and difficulties of the slave-trader must be increased, in order that the demand for slaves on the coast may be reduced in the interval that must necessarily elapse before a total suppression can be effected. There was a time, during the last war, when our cruisers were so numerous in the African seas, that it was difficult for a slaver to escape; and it was then observed that the chiefs betook themselves to agriculture and trade.

The greater the impediments that are thrown in the way of obtaining supplies through the accustomed channels, the stronger becomes the inducement to procure them in another and better mode; and thus, the diminution of the Slave Trade will operate as an encouragement to industry, and a stimulus to commerce. And the evil being thus temporarily held in check, time and space, so to speak, will be given for the effectual operation of the remedy.

19

CHAPTER II.

COMMERCE AND CULTIVATION.

"It was not possible for me to behold the fertility of the soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labour and food, and a variety of other circumstances favourable to colonization and agriculture, and reflect withal on the means which presented themselves of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting that a country so abundantly gifted and honoured by nature, should remain in its present savage and neglected state."-PARK.

"The commercial intercourse of Africa opens an inexhaustible source of wealth to the manufacturing interests of Great Britain-to all which the Slave Trade is a physical obstruction."-GUSTAVUS VASA. Letter to Lord Hawkesbury. 1788.

But what is the true remedy? It cannot be too deeply engraven upon the minds of British statesmen, that it is beyond our power to rescue Africa, if the burthen is to fall wholly and permanently on ourselves. It is not the partial aid, lent by a distant nation, but the natural and healthy exercise of her own energies, which will ensure success. We cannot create a remedy; but, if it be true that this remedy already exists, and that nothing is wanting but its right application-if Africa possesses within herself vast, though as yet undeveloped, resources, we may be competent to achieve the much less onerous task of calling forth her powers,

and enabling her to stand alone, relying upon the strength of her own native sinews. The work will be done, when her population shall be sufficiently enlightened to arrive at the conviction, (grounded on what their eyes see, and their hands handle,) that the wealth readily to be obtained from peaceful industry, surpasses the slender and precarious profits of rapine.

Our system hitherto has been to obtain the co-operation of European powers, while we have paid very little attention to what might be done in Africa itself, for the suppression of the Slave Trade. Our efforts in that direction have been few, faint, and limited to isolated spots, and those by no means well chosen. To me it appears that the converse of this policy would have offered greater probabilities of success; that, while no reasonable expectations can be entertained of overturning this gigantic evil through the agency and with the concurrence of the civilised world, there is a well-founded hope, amounting almost to a certainty, that this object may be attained through the medium and with the concurrence of Africa herself. If, instead of our expensive and fruitless negotiations with Portugal, we had been, during the last twenty years, engaged in extending our intercourse with the nations of Africa, unfolding to them the capabilities of her soil, and the inexhaustible store of wealth which human labour might derive from its cultivation, and convincing them that the Slave Trade alone debars them from enjoying a

vastly more affluent supply of our valuable commodities, and if we had leagued ourselves with them to suppress that baneful traffic, which is their enemy even more than it is ours, there is reason to believe that Africa would not have been what Africa is, in spite of all our exertions,-one universal den of desolation, misery, and crime.

Why do I despair of winning the hearty co-operation of those European powers who now encourage or connive at the Slave Trade? I answer, because we have no sufficient bribe to offer. The secret of their resistance is the 180 per cent. profit which attaches to the Slave Trade. This is a temptation which we cannot outbid. It has been, and it will be, the source of their persevering disregard of the claims of humanity, and of their contempt for the engagements, however solemn, which they have contracted with us.

But why do I entertain a confident persuasion that we may obtain the cordial concurrence of the African powers? Because the Slave Trade is not their gain, but their loss. It is their ruin, because it is capable of demonstration, that, but for the Slave Trade, the other trade of Africa would be increased fifty or a hundred-fold. Because central Africa now receives in exchange for all her exports, both of people and productions, less than half a million of imports, onehalf of which may be goods of the worst description, and a third made up of arms and ammunition. What a wretched return is this, for the productions of so