Great were the rejoicings when it was known that I was alive, and these were not lessened by the gifts that we made to all who had befriended me.
I wished much to go up and visit Karema, but he, alas! was dead, and had been succeeded by one of his sons, to whom I sent a present of cloth, beads, guns, and powder, which would prove I was not ungrateful for the kindness I had received at his father’s hands.
Tom had plenty of ivory, india-rubber, logwood, and other produce, and before we left the Ogowai our holds were full, and we could shape our course for England, where in due time we arrived, and my father welcomed me as one from the dead.
Since then I have been to sea, and now command the _Petrel_, my brother having the charge of a fine barque called the _Ocean Queen_, which my father was able to buy a couple of years ago; and now, lying off Whydah, I have employed my leisure time in writing down my experiences of Africa.
One thing I have learned, and that is to commiserate the lot of the slave. I trust that in a short time the inland traffic in human flesh will utterly cease, and that the labours of Livingstone and those who have followed in his footsteps will result in the opening up of Africa to the blessings of Christianity and civilization.
[A] Marimba are instruments formed of a number of keys of very hard wood, arranged on a frame under which are secured a number of gourds of various sizes. They are played on with two small sticks, and are much more pleasant to hear than most of the instruments of savages.
[B] The people of Zanzibar when in the interior always speak of the island we erroneously call by that name as “the island.” Unguja is the native name of the town known as Zanzibar by Europeans.
[C] When devout Moslems mention the name of the founder of their religion, they always add the words “whom God bless.”
End of Project Gutenberg's In Savage Africa, by Verney Lovett Cameron