A SLAVE SCENE. 157
such circumstances these impulses can never be gratified,
no matter how acute may be the desire to give relief. The
suppression of the traffic cannot in the slightest degree
be influenced by the words or actions of solitary passing
travellers; any movement on my part would have been
madness, even had I a strong caravan of armed followers.
Nothing decidedly advantageous in this way can be
accomplished excepting, as in the case of every great good
work, by every effort being made by strong organisations,
whose work follows the hard and slow course of Time’s
transforming power.
One indiscreet act on the part of a traveller may cause
barriers to progress to spring up, and insurmountably and
for generations stop the advance of trade and missions.
Every traveller who is influenced by considerations of
relative positions must feel how important is the question
of his bearing among a people who watch his every action,
and when a single imprudent step on his part may cost
some unfortunate creature his life.
I think every one is impressed by the very movements of
individuals as they turn, twist, and bend under the pangs
of pain and fear. In this sad scene of excited action, where
anguished fear and doubt were mutely expressed upon
many mournful faces, my mind was filled with melancholy
emotions, awakened by the forlorn looks and stricken
attitudes of the unfortunate crowd : a woeful sight, indeed,
a sight that, while memory lives, will ever. and anon recall
a sorrowful picture, a pitiful story. Some of the slaves
might be seen in the agony of despair; in most cases,
especially the men in the yokes, wriggling and twisting
as they were jostled in the narrow crooked streets, their
heads being screwed round so far that I fully expected to
see some broken necks. Two very pitiable cases strongly