The African sketch-book . d moreover enquired after various commanderswhose acquaintance I had made in the Bights. To thesequestions the officer replied with the utmost circumspec-tion. He plainly supposed that I was connected withthe Emilia, which, of course, he knew to be a slaver,though not seizable, and attributed my curiosity toanything but disinterested motives. His mistake wasnatural enough, and the laugh on his side, not mine. Byno means wishing to be taken for a slaver, I asked morequestions, and he became more reticent, though alwaysin a courteous and gentlemanly manner. At last I to
The African sketch-book . d moreover enquired after various commanderswhose acquaintance I had made in the Bights. To thesequestions the officer replied with the utmost circumspec-tion. He plainly supposed that I was connected withthe Emilia, which, of course, he knew to be a slaver,though not seizable, and attributed my curiosity toanything but disinterested motives. His mistake wasnatural enough, and the laugh on his side, not mine. Byno means wishing to be taken for a slaver, I asked morequestions, and he became more reticent, though alwaysin a courteous and gentlemanly manner. At last I toldhim my name, and said that I had been lately spendinga few months after the gorilla. This was too much for any man to bear. His face 2l6 THE < EMILIA [Book II gleamed with sudden intelligence, and he said, with anah !-you-cant-take-wr-in kind of smile, Well, I dontthink gorillas are likely to come in your way, but (herehis face beamed with triumph) you may pick up a fewbits of black ivory ! THE SLAVE TRADE OF Stan/ards (ieop Jistrd? 6 & 7 Charmy fejLondon; Smith. Elder Sc C? 217 THE SLAVE TRADE THE preceding incident has at least this value, thatnothing like it will ever happen to a traveller European Slave Trade is at an end. The natureof that traffic is so singular, and its history so important,that a few pages must here be given to the who do not like essays can pass on to the nextchapter, which is of a very different kind. Black Africa or the Soudan may roughly be describedas an insular table-land surrounded on all sides by theSahara or the sea. It is divided into agricultural re-gions, pastoral regions, and dense forest mountains ordismal swamps, where the natives ever remain in asavage and degraded state. These hills and fens arethe slave-preserves of Africa, and are hunted every yearby the pastoral tribes with whom war is often a profes-sion. The captives are bought by the agricultural tribesand are made to labour in the fields. This
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