It may, perhaps, be asked what were my plans respecting her and her
brother. The subject was one that I did not, at the time, wish to think
about. I had paid the price of their freedom, because I had become in-
terested in their appearance and manners, and because my sympathies
had been aroused by their sufferings. I was bringing them to the United
States simply because it would have been the height of cruelty to leave
them behind. There was no alternative. Mere freedom would have
been but an idle gift in the wilds of Congo. I could not doubt but that
my motives would be appreciated, and the force of my reasons allowed ;
but what was to be their ultimate fate was a question that I rather
shrunk from entertaining. Certain crude ideas would occasionally in-
trude themselves, but I generally contrived to banish them without
allowing them to assume full shape. Trusting that time would develop
nothing but favorable circumstances, I rested satisfied with the resolution
that my best exertions should never be wanting to mitigate the hardships
of their fate and insure, in future, the comfort and, if possible, the hap-
piness of their lives.
But however practicable were my resolutions for the future, my power
was unequal to their protection from a good many present annoyances.
