MR. WILTON. "It is now sixty years since Great Britain commenced offensive warfare against the African slave-trade; but grieved am I to say that little good has resulted from it; for the slave-trade is still carried on as extensively as ever. Our ships, which are continually on the look-out to recapture the slave-vessels, scarcely ever take more than fifteen in the course of twelve months; and the cost of maintaining this force to our country is 600,000_l_. annually. This money, in my humble opinion, might be more advantageously laid out--mean in reference to this degraded and demoralized quarter of the world, Africa. It might be expended in planting industry, knowledge, and security; in fact, in civilizing the wretched people; and surely that would more effectually check the slave-trade than the occasional capture of one or two cargoes. For the African slave-trade is not the _cause_, but the _effect_, of African ignorance, as any wretched creature there will seize and sell his more wretched neighbor for the paltry sum of a dollar." MRS. WILTON. "This civilization will take years to effect; for deep-rooted evils cannot be destroyed in a day, among an ignorant and prejudiced people." EMMA. "We are at Fish Bay. Dora, will _you_ continue." DORA. "Yes: Fish Bay is one of the finest places in the world for fishing with a 'seine,' by which thousands of barrels of excellent fish are caught in the course of the year." GEORGE. "What sort of a town is Benguela?" DORA. "Small: it consists of not more than 200 houses, mostly one story high. Everything good to eat can be procured here; but there is no good water, except in the rainy season." MR. STANLEY. "Then we had better make all sail, and get away, for it would be sad work to be becalmed with-- 'Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.' While we are in these latitudes, we may as well visit the two islands, which look so tempting after a long voyage on the great Atlantic. Come boys: St. Helena for Charles--Ascension for George." CHARLES. "St. Helena was discovered by those pioneers of navigation, the Portuguese, on Saint Helen's day, the 21st of May, 1501. It is 1200 miles from the continent, in latitude 5° south, longitude 15° west. It is a beautiful island, inhabited by about 300 English families, whose ancestors took possession of it in 1600. The Portuguese stocked it well with cattle and fruit, and the English now benefit by their forethought. 'St. Helena,' says a clever writer,[20] 'is the dark monument of the most conspicuous man that has arisen within the period of certain history.' Of course that means Napoleon Bonaparte. I have done." [Footnote 20: Captain Morrell]