“In writing this book, my aim has been to give a true picture in outline of the Slave-Trade as it exists at the present time on the east coast of Africa. In order to do this, I have selected from the most trust-worthy sources what I believe to be the most
R. M. Balantyne (1825-1894)
telling points of ‘the trade,’ and have woven these together into a tale, the warp of which is composed of thick cords of fact; the woof of slight lines of fiction, just sufficient to hold the fabric together. Exaggeration has been easily avoided, because—as Dr. Livingstone says in regard to the slave-trade — ‘exaggeration is impossible.’ I began my tale in the hope that I might produce something to interest the young (perchance, also, the old) in a most momentous case—the total abolition of the African slave-trade. I close it with the prayer that God may make it a tooth in the file which shall eventually cut the chain of slavery, and set the black man free.” —R. M. Ballantyne(April 24, 1825 – February 8, 1894)