fng from our path to examine plants with which I
confess a limited acquaintance,. The Ethnologist shall
have precisely the same experience that I enjoyed, and
he may either be enlightened or confounded. The
Geologist will find himself throughout the journey in
Central Africa among primitive rocks. The Naturalist
will travel through a grass jungle that conceals much
that is difficult to obtain : both he and the Sportsman
will, I trust, accompany me on a future occasion
through the “ Nile tributaries from Abyssinia,” which
country is prolific in all that is interesting. The
Philanthropist,—what shall I promise to induce him to
accompany me ? I will exhibit a picture of savage
man precisely as he i s ; as I saw him ; and as I judged
Vnm; free from prejudice : painting also, in true colours,
a picture of the abomination that has been the curse
of the African race, the slave trade; trusting that
not only the philanthropist, but every civilized being
will join in the endeavour to erase that stain from
disfigured human nature, and thus open the path
now closed to civilization and missionary enterprise.
To the Missionary,—that noble, self-exiled labourer
toiling too often in a barren field,—I must add the
word of caution, “Waitb” There can be no hope
of success until the slave trade shall have ceased to
exist.
The journey is long, the countries savage; there
are no ancient histories to charm the present with
memories of the p a s t; all is wild and brutal, hard
and unfeeling, devoid of that holy instinct instilled by
nature into the heart of man—the belief in a Supreme
Being. In that remote wilderness in Central Equatorial
Africa are the Sources of the Nile.