ed and me.
That black fellow has as big a heart as any white man. He does not,
however, forget his wife and child, for since he became a Christian, his
great desire is that they should be brought to a knowledge of the truth.
If it were possible, I would help him to get back to his native
village, but to do so is beyond my means. Indeed, from what I hear I
fear that the Arabs have long ere this carried them off into captivity,
or that, deprived of their protector, they have died of hunger or been
killed by their cruel persecutors. Those Arabs have long been the curse
of that part of Africa--indeed, for the purpose of obtaining slaves,
they have devastated many of its most fertile districts."

His guest listened with evident interest to the account given by the
lieutenant.

"I have not hitherto turned my attention in that direction," observed
the former. "Of course I have heard much of the slave trade on the
western coast and of the horrors of the middle passage, but I believed
that it is now carried on only in a very limited degree, and that the
inhabitants of the east coast are well able to take care of themselves."

"I have cruised on both coasts, and am convinced that the people on the
east part of Africa are subjected to cruelties fully equal to those
which the western tribes have for so many ages endured," answered the
lieutenant. "Tom's experience is that of thousands; but he did not
describe the miseries suffered by those left behind, the despair of the
women and children, and of the men who may have escaped from the sudden
attack made on their village, to find it when they have returned burned
to the ground, their fields laid waste, and their cattle carried off.
No one can calculate the numbers who have died from hunger in a land
teeming with abundance."

Ned and Mary came in during the latter part of the conversation, to
which they paid the greatest attention.

"I wish I could help to put a stop to such horrible doings," exclaimed
Ned. "I should like to see an English fleet employed in catching all
the dhows, and an army sent to march through the country to turn all the
Arabs out of it. It would be an honour to serve even as a drummer-boy
on shore, or as a powder-monkey on board one of the ships."

Their guest smiled at Ned's enthusiasm.

"A more certain way may be found for benefiting the Africans than by
armies or fleets," observed Miss Sarah; "if a band of faithful
missionaries of the Gospel we