“During the seven months of our stay here, we have done much towards making friends with the natives; they have closely observed us, and admit that they can see nothing bad; but the influence of the Arabs is so powerful that they, the Wajiji, are afraid to make any definite negotiations with us apart from the Arabs. * * * * * “The slave-trade at Ujiji is merely a small local affair—slaves captured in war, &c., amongst surrounding tribes, and passed from hand to hand, till they finally come to a stand in some Arab’s _shamba_: this used to be done in the market, but since we came here, it has all been kept out of sight. Once only some Wajiji offered us a slave for sale as they passed by our _tembe_. The traders owning these domestic slaves, have from twenty to one hundred of them (I think Muniyi Heri reaches the larger number); they are their domestics, boatmen, carriers, body guard, and cultivators, and, of course, form the principle population of the place, filling up with huts the spaces between their masters’ larger houses. “Slavery amongst the natives is another matter. The Wajiji are great slave-holders, slaves being as common as domestic servants at home; but no great numbers are owned by individuals as among the Arabs. A common present between chiefs is one or two slaves, and Mirambo sends small parties from time to time to buy both slaves and ivory. When the Portuguese and Arab slave-trades are crushed out, or nearly so, we shall see and more fully realize the extent of native slavery, or slave customs, which cover the continent through its length and breadth. The former will have cost an immense outlay of the power and influence of civilized Europe ere it is swept away. The latter will take years of faithful mission labor to eradicate. “To fulfil my promise to an Arab, to whom I said, ‘We do not want to buy except for our own use; but I will send your words to England,’ I add these few lines:—The Arabs say, ‘If the white men will come here and buy, we will grow as much sugar and rice, and spice and oil, &c., as they want, and would much rather get our money in that way, than in dangerous [and, as they admit one by one privately, _illegal_] slave-hunting.’ I keep telling them that the slave-trade is dying out, and they had better look to something else before they are left in the lurch.” * * * * *