On our return to the Kongone, we found that H.M.S.
"Lynx" had caught some of these very slaves in a dhow; for a woman told us she first saw us at Mosauka's, and that the Arabs had fled for fear of an _uncanny_ sort of Basungu.
This is one of the great slave-paths from the interior, others cross the Shire a little below, and some on the lake itself.

We might have released these slaves but did not know what to do with them afterwards.
On meeting men, led in slave-sticks, the Doctor had to bear the reproaches of the Makololo, who never slave, "Ay, you call us bad, but are we yellow-hearted, like these fellows--why won't you let us choke them ?" To liberate and leave them, would have done but little good, as the people of the surrounding villages would soon have seized them, and have sold them again into slavery.

The Manganja chiefs sell their own people, for we met Ajawa and slave-dealers in several highland villages, who had certainly been encouraged to come among them for slaves.

The chiefs always seemed ashamed of the traffic, and tried to excuse themselves.

"We do not sell many, and only those who have committed crimes." As a rule the regular trade is supplied by the low and criminal classes, and hence the ugliness of slaves.