anxiety. First however, he landed the
crew and passengers, with the exception of Moosa and three of his men.
The filthy dhow was then scuttled and sunk, after which the `Firefly'
steamed away for Aden, that being the nearest port where the rescued
slaves could be landed and set free.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE REMEDY.

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