Reader, we will turn aside at this point to preach you a lay sermon, if
you will lend an attentive ear. It shall be brief, and straight to the
point. Our text is,--Prevention and Cure.
There are at least three great channels by which the life-blood of
Africa is drained. One trends to the east through the Zanzibar
dominions, another to the south-east through the Portuguese
dependencies, and a third to the north through Egypt. If the
slave-trade is to be effectually checked, the flow through these three
channels must be stopped. It is vain to rest content with the stoppage
of one leak in our ship if two other leaks are left open.
Happily, in regard to the first of these channels, Sir Bartle Frere has
been successful in making a grand stride in the way of prevention. If
the Sultan of Zanzibar holds to his treaty engagements, "domestic
slavery" in his dominions is at an end. Nevertheless, our fleet will be
required just as much as ever to prevent the unauthorised, piratical,
slave-trade, and this, after all, is but one-third of the preventive
work we have to do. Domestic slavery remains untouched in the
Portuguese dependencies, and Portugal has decreed that it shall remain
untouched until the year 1878! It is well that we should be thoroughly
impressed with the fact that so long as slavery in any form is
tolerated, the internal--we may say infernal--miseries and horrors which
we have attempted to depict will continue to blight the land and
brutalise its people. Besides this, justice demands that the same
constraint which we lay on the Sultan of Zanzibar should be applied to
the King of Portugal. We ought to insist that _his_ "domestic slavery"
shall cease at _once_. Still further, as Sir Bartle Frere himself has
recommended, we should urge upon our Government the appointment of
efficient consular establishments in the Portuguese dependencies, as
well as vigilance in securing the observance of the treaties signed by
the Sultans of Zanzibar and Muscat.
A recent telegram from Sir Samuel Baker assures us that a great step has
been made in the way of checking the tide of slavery in the third--the
Egyptian--channel, and Sir Bartle Frere bears testimony to the desire of
the Khedive that slavery should be put down in his dominions. For this
we have reason to be thankful; and the appearance of affairs in that
quarter is hopeful, but our hope is mingled with anxiety, because
mankind is terribly prone to go to sleep on hopeful appearances. Our
nature is such, that our only chance of success lies, under God, in
resolving ceaselessly to energise until our ends be accomplished. We
must see to it that the Khedive of Egypt acts in accordance with his
professions, and for this end efficient consular agency is as needful in
the north-east as in the south-east.
So much for prevention, but prevention is not cure. In order to
accomplish this two things are necessary. There must be points or
centres of refuge for the oppressed on the _mainland_ of Africa, and
there must be the introduction of the Bible. The first is essential to
the second. Where anarchy, murder, injustice, and tyranny are rampant
and triumphant, the advance of the missionary is either terribly slow or
altogether impossible. The life-giving, soul-softening Word of God, is
the only remedy for the woes of mankind, and, therefore, the only cure
for Africa. To introduce it effectually, and along with it civilisation
and all the blessings that flow therefrom, it is indispensable that
Great Britain should obtain, by treaty or by purchase, one or more small
pieces of land, there to establish free Christian negro settlements, and
there, with force sufficient to defend them from the savages, and worse
than savages,--the Arab and Portuguese half-caste barbarians and lawless
men who infest the land--hold out the hand of friendship to all natives
who choose to claim her protection from the man-stealer, and offer to
teach them the blessed truths of Christianity and the arts of
civilisation. Many of the men who are best fitted to give an opinion on
the point agree in holding that some such centre, or centres, on the
mainland are essential to the permanent cure of slavery, although they
differ a little as to the best localities for them. Take, for instance,
Darra Salaam on the coast, the Manganja highlands near the river Shire,
and Kartoum on the Nile. Three such centres would, if established,
begin at once to dry up the slave-trade at its three fountain-heads,
while our cruisers would check it on the coast. In these centres of
light and freedom the negroes might see exemplified the blessings of
Christianity and civilisation, and, thence, trained native missionaries
might radiate into all parts of the vast continent armed only with the
Word of God, the shield of Faith, and the sword of the Spirit in order
to preach the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In brief, the great points on which we ought as a nation, to insist, are
the _immediate_ abolition of the slave-trade in Portuguese dependencies;
the scrupulous fulfilment of treaty obligations by the Sultans of
Zanzibar and Muscat, the Shah of Persia, and the Khedive of Egypt; the
establishment by our Government of efficient consular agencies where
such are required; the acquisition of territory on the mainland for the
purposes already mentioned, and the united action of all Christians in
our land to raise funds and send men to preach the Gospel to the negro.
So doing we shall, with God's blessing, put an end to the Eastern
slave-trade, save equatorial Africa, and materially increase the
commerce, the riches, and the happiness of the world.