nt slap into the subject that was uppermost in my mind, and says I to
him, says I, they does a deal o' slavin' on this here coast, it
appears--Black Ivory is a profitable trade, ain't it? W'y, sir, you
should have seen the way he grinned and winked, and opened out on
'em.--`Black Ivory!' says he, `w'y, Jackson, there's more slaves
exported from these here parts annooally than would fill a good-sized
city. I could tell you--but,' says he, pullin' up sudden, `you won't
split on me, messmate?' `Honour bright,' says I, `if ye don't call
tellin' my captain splittin'.' `Oh no,' says he, with a laugh, `it's
little I care what _he_ knows, or does to the pirates--for that's their
true name, and murderers to boot--but don't let it come to the
Governor's ears, else I'm a ruined man.' I says I wouldn't and then he
goes on to tell me all sorts of hanecdots about their doin's--that they
does it with the full consent of the Governor, who gets head-money for
every slave exported; that nearly all the Governors on the coast are
birds of the same feather, and that the Governor-General himself, [See
Consul McLeod's _Travels in Eastern Africa_, volume one page 306.] at
Mozambique, winks at it and makes the subordinate Governors pay him
tribute. Then he goes on to tell me more about the Governor of this
here town, an' says that, though a kind-hearted man in the main, and
very good to his domestic slaves, he encourages the export trade,
because it brings him in a splendid revenue, which he has much need of,
poor man, for like most, if not all, of the Governors on the coast, he
do receive nothin' like a respectible salary from the Portuguese
Government at home, and has to make it up by slave-tradin'." [See
McLeod's _Travels_, volume one page 293.]

It must be explained here that British cruisers were, and still are,
kept on the east coast of Africa, for the purpose of crushing only the
_export_ slave-trade. They claim no right to interfere with "domestic
slavery," an institution which is still legal in the dominions of the
Sultan of Zanzibar and in the so-called colonies of Portugal on that
coast.

"But that is not the best of it, sir," continued Jackson, with a
respectful smile, "after we'd had our jaw out I goes off along the road
by the beach to think a bit what I'd best do, an' have a smoke--for
that's wot usually sets my brain to work full-swing. Bein' hot I lay
down in the lee of a bush to excogitate. You see, sir, my old mess