Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were seen in every direction, and it was painfully interesting to observe the different postures in which the poor wretches had breathed their last.  A whole heap had been thrown down a slope behind a village, where the fugitives often crossed the river from the east; and in one hut of the same village no fewer than twenty drums had been collected, probably the ferryman’s fees.  Many had ended their misery under shady trees—­others under projecting crags in the hills—­while others lay in their huts, with closed doors, which when opened disclosed the mouldering corpse with the poor rags round the loins—­the skull fallen off the pillow—­the little skeleton of the child, that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large skeletons.  The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a well peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the conviction upon us, that the destruction of human life in the middle passage, however great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and made us feel that unless the slave-trade—­that monster iniquity, which has so long brooded over Africa—­is put down, lawful commerce cannot be established.

We believed that, if it were possible to get a steamer upon the Lake, we could by her means put a check on the slavers from the East Coast; and aid more effectually still in the suppression of the slave-trade, by introducing, by way of the Rovuma, a lawful traffic in ivory.  We therefore unscrewed the “Lady Nyassa” at a rivulet about five hundred yards below the first cataract, and began to make a road over the thirty-five or forty miles of land portage, by which to carry her up piecemeal.  After mature consideration, we could not imagine a more noble work of benevolence, than thus to introduce light and liberty into a quarter of this fair earth, which human lust has converted into the nearest possible resemblance of what we conceive the infernal regions to be—­and we sacrificed much of our private resources as an offering for the promotion of so good a cause.

The chief part of the labour of road-making consisted in cutting down trees and removing stones.  The country being covered with open forest, a small tree had to be cut about every fifty or sixty yards.  The land near the river was so very much intersected by ravines, that search had to be made, a mile from its banks, for more level ground.  Experienced Hottentot drivers would have taken Cape wagons without any other trouble than that of occasionally cutting down a tree.  No tsetse infested this district, and the cattle brought from Johanna flourished on the abundant pasture.  The first half-mile of road led up, by a gradual slope, to an altitude of two hundred feet above the ship, and a sensible difference of climate was felt even there.  For the remainder of the distance the height increased,—­till, at the uppermost cataract, we were more than 1200 feet above the sea.  The country here, having