SLAVE-TRADERSSLAVE-TRADERS FROM KORDOFAN.CHAPTERXXIII.KatherineII.’s villages. Goods bartered by slave-traders. Agents of slave-traders. Baseness of Fakis. Horrible scene. Enthusiasm of slave-dealers. Hospitality shown to slave-dealers. Three classes of Gellahbas. Intercourse with Mofio. Price of slaves. Relative value of races. Private slaves of the Nubians. Voluntary slaves. Slave-women. The murhaga. Agricultural slave-labour. Population of the district. Five sources of the slave trade. Repressive measures of the Government. Slave-raids of Mehemet Ali. Slow progress of humanity. Accomplishment of half the work. Egypt’s mission. No co-operation from Islamism. Regeneration of the East. Depopulation of Africa. Indignation of the traveller. Means for suppressing the slave trade. Commissioners of slaves. Chinese immigration. Foundation and protection of great States.Probablythe overland slave-trade along the roads of Kordofan had never been so flourishing as in the winter of 1870-71, when I found myself at its very fountain-head. Already, in the previous summer, had Sir Samuel Baker, with praiseworthy energy, commenced scouring the waters of the Upper Nile, and by capturing all slave-vessels and abolishing a large “chasua” belonging to the Mudir of Fashoda, had left no doubt as to the earnestness of his purpose; but whether it was that his peremptory measures had driven the Gellahbas of Kordofan to a common centre, or whether the reported scarcity of cotton-stuffs in the Seribas had raised their hopes of doing some business, or whether, as perhaps was most likely, the introduction of Egyptian troops into the Bahr-el-Ghazal district opened a fresh and attractive avenue to their avarice—one thing is certain that neither Baker nor the Government (the Viceroy being free from blame in the matter) accomplished anything like a practicalsupervision over the local authorities in Kordofan. Satisfied with having, to the eyes of the world at large, made a clean sweep of the waters of the Nile, Sir Samuel and his supporters did not perceive, or could not remedy, what was going on on either side of the great river-highway. To anyone who should now enter the country under the impression that the slave-trade on the Upper Nile was for ever abolished, and should subsequently learn by contrast the true condition of the lands, a scene would be presented that might well remind him of the painted villages that were exhibited to Katherine II. on her tour through Southern Russia.GOODS FOR BARTER.The sheikh Seebehr complained bitterly of the great rush of Gellahbas to his establishment, and told me that his corn was so nearly exhausted that his land was threatened with famine. From his own mouth I learnt that during the winter two large caravans had come through Shekka, and had brought into the country the enormous quantity of 2000 of these petty adventurers; by the middle of January the number was still larger, and at the beginning of February was swollen again by 600 or 700 more.All these traders break their journeys across the steppes of the Baggara by making a lengthened stay at Shekka, for the purpose of purchasing oxen both for riding and for carrying burdens; here also it is their practice to lay in a stock of butter[82]for bartering in the Seribas, where it is in great demand. The goods that they bring into the Seriba districts are principally calico, “trumba,” a coarse material woven in Sennaar, and English cotton of two sorts, “amerikani and damoor;” they also make a market of a number of firearms, mostly ordinary double-barrelled guns, of Belgian manufacture, worth from ten to twenty dollars apiece; in addition to these they frequently carry on a brisk trade inall kinds of knick-knacks—pipes, looking-glasses, Turkish slippers, red fezzes, and carpets.Every Gellahba, according to his means, takes into his service a number of the Baggara, to whom he entrusts the training and management of his cattle. Camels invariably succumb to the climate in a very short time, and are consequently but rarely used as a means of transport. All the traders ride asses, and it may safely be asserted that they pass the greater part of their lives on the backs of these animals; in fact, a petty pedlar of the Soudan without his donkey would be a sight almost as remarkable as a Samoyede without his reindeer. Besides its rider the donkey will carry not much less than ten pieces of cotton; if it survives the journey it is exchanged in the Seribas for a slave, or perhaps for two; its load of goods will bring in three more, and thus, under favourable circumstances, a speculative vagrant, who has started with nothing beyond his donkey and five pounds’ worth of goods, will find himself in possession of at least four slaves, which may be disposed of in Khartoom for 250 dollars (50l.) The return journey is always made on foot, and the unfortunate slaves have to carry all the articles necessary for travelling.FAKIS.But quite apart from these pettifogging traders, whose innate propensity for trafficking in human beings can only be compared to the ineradicable love of usury that characterises the itinerant Polish Jews, there are numbers of more important investors, who, protected by a large retinue of armed slaves and accompanied by long trains of loaded oxen and asses, carry on a business which brings many hundreds of their fellow-creatures into the market. These more wholesale dealers have their partners or agents permanently settled in regular establishments in the large Seribas. More frequently than not these agents are priests, or Fakis as they are called, though strictly the term Faki belongs only to those whose profession it is to explain the Scriptures; it is,however, an indisputable fact that the slave-trade is included amongst the secondary occupations of this class, and, as matter of fact, they are all more or less soiled with the defilements of this scandalous business. In the larger towns, and especially in Khartoom, there is every opportunity for observing their doings, and things often come to light which, except they were actually witnessed, would seem perfectly incredible. In finding scope for their commercial propensities they practice the most heterogeneous trades: the poorer Fakis act as brokers, retail-dealers, amulet-writers, quacks, schoolmasters, and match-makers; whilst the richer and more educated class are directors of schools and managers of inns, where they place paid subordinates to carry on their business. The doctrines of the Prophet are taught in their schools, whilst the merissa-shops are dedicated in a large degree to the worship of Venus. But, in spite of everything, these people are held in the greatest veneration, and their reputation for piety not unfrequently survives the generation in which they live; they are buried in the public places for prayer, the place of interment being marked by small white banners as hallowed ground. A few words will suffice to exhibit these holy men in their true colours.With the Suras of the Koran in one hand and their operating-knife[83]in the other, they rove from Seriba to Seriba all over the country, leading what might be termed in the most rigid sense a life of perpetual prayer; every other word that they utter is either an invocation of Allah or a direct appeal to Mohammed-el-Rasool. But the wide difference between faith and practice is exemplified in the unrighteous dealings of these Fakis; never did I see slaves so mercilessly treated as by these fanatics, and yet they would confer upon the poor souls, whom they had purchasedlike stolen goods, for a mere bagatelle, the most religious of names, such as “Allagabo” (i. e.given by God). The following incident will show that with their horrible blasphemy they do not hesitate to combine such cruelty as the commonest scavenger would shrink from using to a dying dog.In one of their convoys were some poor, miserable Mittoo-slaves, almost too emaciated to bear the heavy yoke (the sheyba) that was fastened to their necks. Going, as I was wont, to my kitchen garden, I had constantly to pass the huts in which they were kept. One morning, hearing an unusual outcry, I paused to inquire what was the matter. A scene, such as my pen can only indignantly depict, met my gaze. A dying man had been dragged from the hut, and was being belaboured by the cruelest of lashes to prove whether life was yet extinct. The long white stripes on the withered skin testified to the agonies that the poor wretch was enduring, and the vociferations I had beard were the shouts of his persecutors, who were yelling out their oaths and imprecations. “The cursed dog, he is not dead yet! the heathen rascal won’t die!” Then, as though resolved to accumulate cruelty upon cruelty, the Faki’s slave-boys not only began to break out into revolting jeers, but actually played at football with the writhing body of the still gasping victim; truly it seemed to be with justice that La Fontaine had recorded: “Cet âge est sans pitié.” The horrible contortions of the sufferer’s countenance, even if they failed to excite commiseration, were sufficient to melt the hardest of hearts; but so far from this, the unfeeling reprobates were loud in their asseverations that the poor wretch was only shamming, and intended to sneak off unobserved. His pitiable appearance, however, gainsaid their words, and he was finally dragged off into the woods, where a few weeks afterwards I found his skull, which I deposited with those of many others of his fellow-sufferers in the Museum in Berlin.Such is the history of the skull marked No. 36 in my collection, and such are the deeds perpetrated in the very face of death by Mohammedan priests, who consider themselves the very pillars of their faith. And yet our missionaries, perhaps the most guileless men in the world, start by putting themselves on equal terms with these Mussulmen, and endeavour to make headway against their faith, when it is really a simple case of morality that is at issue. The history of Islamism has ever been a history of crime, and to Christian morality alone do we owe all the social good that we enjoy.GELLAHBAS.It must not, however, be supposed that the minor retail trade in slaves is uniformly lucrative. The smaller Gellahbas are exposed to numberless mischances; if their ox or ass should die upon the journey, they must at once dispose of their other property at any price; then, again, they are liable to suffer from a lack of corn during their journey across the wilderness; and, what is perhaps the sorest disaster that can befall them, their slaves so frequently run away, that their profits are dispersed before they are realised. Their powers of endurance are truly wonderful. I repeatedly asked them what induced them to leave their homes, to change their mode of living, and to suffer the greatest hardships in a strange land, all for the sake of pursuing an occupation that only in the rarest cases would keep them from absolute want. “We want ‘groosh’” (piastres), they would reply; “so why should we live at home?” And when I further urged that they had far better lead respectable lives, and either grow corn or breed cattle, they answered, “No, that wouldn’t answer our purpose; when we are at home, we are exhausted by the demands of the Government, and corn doesn’t bring us in any money.” Not that the Government is really so hard upon the people as they assert; the fact is that they are incorrigibly lazy, and have so great a dislike to work of any sort that theydo not care to be able to pay their taxes, which do not much exceed those that are usually demanded in Egypt proper. To expect that these slave-traders should renounce of their own accord the business which suits them so completely, and for which they will endure any amount of hardship, would be almost as unreasonable as to expect Esquimaux to grow melons.All trade is undeniably in a very stagnant condition in the Egyptian Soudan; the rich man gives nothing away, but lives like a dog, and has no desire beyond that of privately amassing wealth; of domestic comfort, or luxury even on the limited Oriental scale, he has not the faintest conception. There is consequently no demand for labour, no circulation of money in wages, and it is manifestly impossible for trade to flourish as long as the rich man consumes nothing; and equally impossible for the poor man to thrive while the rich man keeps his retinue of slaves, who do all he wants without requiring payment. Thus slavery itself ever reproduces slavery.One material alleviation to the position of the Gellahbas is the open hospitality they meet with in all the Seribas. Besides the mercenaries of the various ivory companies—the controllers, clerks, agents, storekeepers, and other officials—they find numbers of their compatriots and brethren in the faith who have taken up their abode in these lands, and who subsist free of expense on what is gained by the sweat of the negroes; mere idle drones, as it were, living on the produce of the workers. The rabble thus collected consists partly of escaped convicts and partly of refugees or outlaws who are evading their proper punishment, and if they could be swept from off the face of the land, there would then be food enough for half a score of regiments, should the Egyptian Government determine to station them in the country.Just in the same way as in the Egyptian Soudan, the actual cost of travelling in these lands is next to nothing;every new comer to a Seriba is treated to kissere and melah, and his slaves and donkey are provided with corn enough to keep them from starvation. Wherever they go the Gellahbas may stay as long as they please, and accordingly they wander all over the district from the west to the east, as far as the Rohl and the Dyemit, and only just before the commencement of the rainy season they reassemble at their common place of rendezvous in Seebehr’s Seriba, where they re-organise their caravans, and make their final preparations for starting for Kordofan.THREE CLASSES OF GELLAHBAS.The Gellahbas who, either on their own account or as representatives of others, carry on the slave-trade in this district may be divided into three classes:—1. The petty dealers, who, with only a single ass or bullock, come in January and return in March or April.2. The agents or partners of the great slave merchants in Darfoor and Kordofan, who have settled in the Seribas, nearly always in the capacity of Fakis.3. The colonised slave-dealers, who live on their own property in the Dehms of the west.The last of these form the only class who ever penetrate beyond the bounds of the Seriba district into the negro-countries. They nearly all direct their course from the Dehms in Dar Ferteet to the territories of Mofio, the great Niam-niam king of the west, and are accompanied by considerable bands of armed men, whom they recruit for this purpose from the best of their slaves. Contrary to the policy of the Khartoom ivory-merchants, the Gellahbas have by degrees supplied King Mofio with such a number of firearms that he is now said to have at his command a force of 300 fully-equipped warriors, a formidable fighting-force with which he seriously threatens any expedition of the Khartoomers that may enter his dominions. His store of slaves appears absolutely inexhaustible; year after year his territories go on yielding thousands upon thousands,which he obtains either from the slave tribes[84]that he has subjected or by raids organised against the surrounding nations.As regards the price paid for slaves, I can only report what I personally witnessed in the Seribas. Copper and calico are used as the principal mediums of exchange. Calico is very fluctuating in its value, which is always first reduced to its equivalent in copper. In 1871 thirty rottoli of copper[85]in Dehm Nduggo and twenty-five rottoli in the Bongo and Dyoor districts was taken for young slaves of both sexes of the class called “sittahsi” (literally, six spans high), meaning children of eight or ten years of age; thus making the average price in this country, according to the value of copper in Khartoom, to be about 7½ Maria Theresa dollars (1l.10s.); particularly pretty women-slaves, called “nadeef,”i. e.clean or pure, fetch nearly double that price, and are very rarely procured for exportation, because they are in great demand amongst the numerous settlers in the country. Strong adult women, who are ugly, are rather cheaper than the young girls, whilst old women are worth next to nothing, and can be bought for a mere bagatelle. Full-grown men are rarely purchased as slaves, being troublesome to control and difficult of transport. Slaves in the East are usually in demand asobjets de luxe, and consequently lead an idle life, and are not valued according to their capabilities for labour.In consequence of the glut of wares in the market during the winter of 1871, the quoted value of slaves rose to almost double that of the previous year, and very high prices were paid in cotton stuffs. As much as four or six pieces of theordinary sort (damoor) were paid for the “sittahsi,” each piece measuring twenty-four yards in length, and worth two Maria Theresa dollars in Khartoom. Next to white cotton materials firearms are a very favourite means of payment, and bring in a far larger proportional profit. For an ordinary double-barrelled gun of French or Belgian manufacture, a slave-dealer can purchase two or three sittahsi, and if the weapon has gilt facings he can sometimes obtain as many as five for it.PRICE OF SLAVES.The price of slaves in Khartoom at that time might be reckoned to be at least six times their original cost; of course it will be understood that the value would be regulated to a great extent by the more or less severe measures taken by the local government for the suppression of the trade; but at the time of my departure from Khartoom, at a period when the market was tolerably unrestrained, no slave could be obtained for less than forty Maria Theresa dollars, and that was the lowest price given for elderly women only fit for household service.Babuckur slaveBabuckur slave.The slaves brought from the Bahr-el-Ghazal districts vary in value according to their nationality. The Bongo are the most prized, as they are easily taught and are docile and faithful, and are, besides, good-looking and industrious. True Niam-niam, especially young girls, are, however, much dearer than the best Bongo slaves, but they are so extremely rare as hardly to admit of having a price quoted. The Mittoo are of little value, being ugly, lean, and incapable of enduring fatigue or even of undertaking any regular work. No amount of good living or kind treatment can overcome the love of freedom of the Babuckur; they take every oportunity of effecting an escape, and can only be secured by fetters and by the yoke;[86]the same may also be said of the Loobah and Abaka. The demand for slaves in the Seribasthrough which I travelled would alone suffice to support a very flourishing trade. Numerically the Mohammedan settlers bear a high ratio to the native population, and in some of the western territories, as amongst the Kredy, Golo, and Sehre, they are actually considerably in excess of the total number of natives, who only consist of bearers and agricultural labourers. Taken one with another every Nubian possesses about three slaves, and thus it may easily be conceived that the computation is not too high that places the total number of private slaves in the country at between 50,000 and 60,000. These private slaves are quite distinct from those that are kept in store and used as merchandise; they may be divided into four categories:—1. Boys from seven to ten years of age, who are employed to carry guns and ammunition: every Nubian soldier possessesat least one of these juvenille armour-bearers. When they get older they are included in my next category.FAROOKH.2. The second class includes the greater part of the full-grown natives in the Seribas. They are termed “Farookh,” “Narakeek,” or “Bazingir,” and, being provided with guns, form a kind of Nizzam, whose duty it is to accompany the natives in all their expeditions, whether for war or for trading purposes. These black soldiers constitute nearly half the fighting force in all the Seribas, and play a prominent part in time of war. It is the duty of the Farookh to scour the negro villages in search of corn, to assemble the bearers, and to keep under coercion any that are refractory in the wilderness. In every action the hardest work is put upon their shoulders, and they have not only to sustain the chief brunt of any actual conflict with the savages, but to provide for the safe custody of all prisoners. If the controllers of the Seribas had a sufficient number of these Farookh, they might well dispense altogether with their Nubian soldiers, except for one reason, to which I have already referred, viz. the constant danger of their running away, a risk that makes them practically less reliable than the Nubians, who never think of such a thing, and even if they did, would only join another company. The Farookh have wives, children, and land in the Seribas, and some of the elder amongst them have even slave boys of their own to carry their guns. Their ranks are largely increased after every Niam-niam expedition, as numbers of young natives will often voluntarily attach themselves to the Nubians, and, highly delighted at getting a cotton shirt and gun of their own, will gladly surrender themselves to slavery, attracted moreover by the hope of finding better food in the Seribas than their own native wildernesses can produce. The mere offer of these simple inducements in any part of the Niam-niam lands would be sufficient to gather a whole host of followers and vassals, and during our journey I myselfreceived proposals to join our band from young people in all parts of the country. I mention this circumstance just to illustrate my opinion of how easily the Egyptian Government might, without using any compulsion, enlist here as many soldiers as it required. I am persuaded that, without any difficulty, whole regiments of Nizzam troops might be raised from amongst the Niam-niam in the course of comparatively a very few days.3. The third class of private slaves is formed of the women who are kept in the houses. Every soldier has one of these slaves, and sometimes more, in which case one is advanced to the position of favourite, whilst the rest are employed in the ordinary routine of preparing meal, or in the tedious process of baking kissere. These women are passed like dollars from hand to hand, a proceeding which is a prolific source of the rapid spread of those loathsome disorders by which the lands within the jurisdiction of the Seribas have been infested ever since their subjugation by the Khartoomers. In accordance with the universal rule in the Mohammedan Soudan, the children of a slave are reared as legitimate, and the mother receives the title of wife. The daily conversation of the Nubian mercenaries is a continual proof that their thoughts are always running on their slaves both male and female. If a quarrel arises amongst a group of people, one is certain to be correct in surmising that some slave or other is being reclaimed or the payment due for her is being demanded; or if there is a sudden uproar, the burden of the cry is sure to be, “A slave has run away!” “Kummarah olloroh,” shout the Bongo, and “Ollomollo, ollomollo,” resounds from every side. Many and many a time have I been roused from my slumbers in the early morning by such cries as these, and it is one of the occupations of the Seriba people and their negroes to hunt down and recapture these runaway women. Hunger often obliges the fugitives to take refuge in a strange Seriba; here they are looked uponas lucky windfalls, and are either seized by force or are quietly disposed of to the itinerant Gellahbas; and if the rightful owner subsequently appears to claim his property, a violent squabble will inevitably be the result. These slaves are thus the subject of one incessant wrangling; and if a slave absent herself only temporarily without the consent of her master, she will at once excite his jealousy, displeasure, and mistrust.HOUSEHOLD DRUDGES.The single slave of the poorer soldiers is a regular drudge, or maid-of-all work: she has to bring water from the well in great pitchers, which she carries on her head; she does all the washing, if there is anything to wash; she grinds the corn upon the murhaga, makes the dough, roasts the kissere on the doka, and finally prepares the melah, a horrible greasy concoction of water, sesame-oil or pounded sesame, bamia-pods, and corchorus leaves, beautifully seasoned with cayenne pepper and alkali. Not only has she to do the sweeping of the whole house, but she has to get wood from the wilderness, and, when on a journey, to supply the want of any other bearer by carrying all the lumber of her lord and master. In the larger households, however, of the more important people, such as controllers or agents, where slaves are numerous, each woman has her own allotted task, and a large number of boys is employed, who follow their master on his travels, each carrying a single weapon, either a gun, a pistol, or a sword. From all this some little idea may be gained of the unwieldy crowd that must necessarily be attached to every march undertaken by the Nubian mercenaries. To a force of 200 soldiers on our Niam-niam expedition there were as many as 300 women and boys; a party which, as well as immoderately increasing the length of the procession, by the clatter of their cooking utensils and their everlasting wrangling (scenes of which I have already given some illustration), kept up a perpetual turmoil which at times threatened a hopeless confusion.Slave at workSlave at work.The rude and primitive manner of grinding corn employed throughout the Mohammedan Soudan contributes more than may at first sight seem credible to perpetuate the immense demand for female slave labour. The very laborious process is performed by pounding the grain on a large stone, called murhaga, by means of a smaller stone held in the hand; it is the only method of grinding corn known to the majority of African nations, and is so slow that by the hardest day’s work a woman is able to prepare only a sufficient quantity of meal for five or six men.[87]A mill worked by oxen has been erected by the Government in Khartoom, not only for the use of the troops, but also to enable private individuals to have their corn ground at a moderate price; but in spite of this provision the durra-corn is still pounded on the murhagain all the houses; not a single resident takes advantage of the improved facility that is offered. Until this lavish waste of human strength is suppressed, either by the introduction of mechanical handmills or by putting a tax upon the murhaga, no hope is to be entertained of any diminution in the demand for female slaves. This is but one instance, yet it may suffice to show how gradually and consistently one must set to work ultimately to gain the suppression of slavery in the Soudan: nowhere can old institutions be declared to be abolished, until new institutions have been provided to take their place.SLAVES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE.4. In my fourth and last category I would include all slaves of both sexes who are employed exclusively in husbandry. Only the men in more important situations, such as the controllers of the Seribas, the clerks, the dragomen (generally natives who have been brought up like Arabs in Khartoom), the Fakis, and the colonised Gellahbas actually cultivate the soil and possess cattle; the poorer people being content with a little occasional gardening and the possession of a few goats and fowls. Old women, who are too weak for anything else, are employed to weed the fields, and at harvest time the Farookh are called to their assistance. Statute labour as applied to agriculture is nowhere demanded of the natives, although it would really act less disadvantageously on the condition of the population than the arbitrary system that allows any controller of a Seriba to seize the children from the native villages and dispose of them to the Gellahbas, a proceeding that is generally carried out as a punishment for offences like dishonesty, treachery, or attempts to abscond.The remote position of the Seribas places the controllers far beyond any authority, and makes them quite independent of the jurisdiction of the chiefs of the trading-firms, who are most of them settled in Khartoom without much care for either their own advantage or for that of the country;it thus becomes necessary to appoint trustworthy people to the post, and consequently the head-controllers are in many cases slaves who have been reared in their master’s house. A controller has every opportunity if he pleases of coming to an arrangement with the soldiers and other officials, and in concert with them of acting very much to his chiefs disadvantage; or he might sell the negroes on his territories to the Gellahbas, turn the proceeds into copper, and retire as a rich man to Darfoor, already a place of refuge for many delinquents from the Egyptian Soudan.The sub-controllers and agents in the subsidiary Seribas are, on the other hand, far less trustworthy; their position is often held only for a temporary period, and consequently their interests are not so firmly bound up with those of their chiefs as those of his former slaves. Then, too, the smaller Seribas are often so far apart that the Vokeel can transact all their business without any supervision from the head controller; all this is well known to the itinerant slave-dealers, who have a special preference for visiting these minor settlements, because they are aware that they can there buy up numbers of boys and girls, disregardful of the fact that, as future bearers and agricultural labourers, the children are vassals belonging to the soil, and form part and parcel of the property of the head of the firm.After thus considering slave-labour in its separate branches, and gaining some idea of the immense and wasteful expenditure of human energy that goes on in the Seribas of the Khartoomers, we may turn our attention to the numerical proportion of the foreign settlers (with whom must be included their private slaves) to the actual aboriginal population. The following table is founded upon a careful calculation; the results are given in round numbers, as fuller details would demand more space than could be afforded here.CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS.Proportions of thePopulationin the District of theKhartoomers’ Seribason the Bahr-el-Ghazal.Consumers.Nubian soldiers, recruited in Khartoom and consisting of natives of Dongola, Sheygieh, Sennaar, Kordofan, various Bedouins, &c.5,000Black slave troops (Farookh)[88]5,000Fellow-boarders with the Nubian idlers from the Soudan, living here in order to procure corn cheaply and without any trouble1,000Gellahbas settled in Dar Ferteet, and agents in the Seribas, Fakis, &c.2,000Itinerant Gellahbas, who enter the country in the winter2,000Private slaves belonging to the colonised Mohammedan population40,000Total55,000Producers.Bongo100,000Mittoo (including Loubah, Madi, &c.)30,000Dyoor10,000Golo6,000Sehre4,000Kredy20,000Small tribes of natives belonging to the immediate environs of the Seribas, such as the Dembo, Bimberry, Manga, &c.20,000Total190,000In the next place let us turn our attention to those slaves who are regarded as actual merchandise, and who are dragged into bondage from the Upper Nile lands solely for purposes of profit. In order to demonstrate how important at the present time is the part taken by the district of the Gazelle in the entire African slave-trade, I will take a brief survey of the sources which all the year round supply the endless succession of the dealers with fresh stores of living wares,and which, branching off into three great highways to the north, yield up their very life-blood to gratify the insatiable and luxurious demands of Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and Asiatic Turkey. Previous travellers have estimated the total of the annual traffic in this immense region to be 25,000, but I shall show by a very summary reckoning that this is far too low a computation. The three currents for the slave-trade in north-east Africa (a region corresponding to what may be geographically termed the “Nile district”) are the natural highways of the Nile and the Red Sea, and the much frequented caravan roads that, traversing the deserts at no great distance to the west of the Nile, find their outlet either in Siout or near Cairo. As a proof of how little these roads even now are known, I may mention that when, in the summer of 1871, a caravan with 2000 slaves arrived direct from Wadai, it caused quite a sensation in the neighbourhood of the pyramids of Gizeh; it was supposed to have traversed a geographicalterra incognita, and it divided and dispersed itself as mysteriously as it came. It is far more difficult to place the deserts under inspection than the ocean, and this is especially the case in the vicinity of a river, where a caravan can easily supply itself with water for many days. The borders of a desert are like the coasts of an unnavigable ocean. The plan, however, of establishing a system of control along the borders of the Nile Valley, corresponding to the coastguard cruisers on our seas, has never yet been tried.SOURCES OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.The following are the territories that form the sources of the slave-trade in North-Eastern Africa (Nile district):—1. The Galla countries to the south of Abyssinia, between latitude 3° and 8° N. The outlets from them are: (a)viâShoa to Zeyla; (b)viâGodyam through Abyssinia to Matamma and Suakin, or to Massowa and smaller unguarded coast towns; (c)viâFazogl to Sennaar, where the largest market is not in, but above Khartoom, in a place calledMussalemia; the merchandise brought by this route is abundant and valuable. According to the reports of the Abyssinian collectors of customs the number of slaves in Matamma (Gallabat) amounted in 1865 alone to 18,000.2. The second source is found amongst the Berta negroes above Fazogl, and amongst the Dinka above Sennaar, between the White and Blue Niles. These are likewise carried to Mussalemia and Khartoom, but in no considerable numbers.3. The Agow, in the heart of Abyssinia between Tigre and Amhara, together with the people on the north-west frontier of the Abyssinian highland, are also exposed to plunder of the persons of their sons, on account of their disorganised condition and their position on the wild border-land. The channel for their dispersion is across the Red Sea to Djidda.4. The upper district of the White Nile, inclusive of the Albert and Victoria Lakes, though the slave-trade really begins at latitude 5° N. The expedition of Sir Samuel Baker has stopped this source. The annual produce in the most favourable years did not exceed 1000.5. The supply of slaves in the upper district of the Bahr-el-Ghazal is chiefly derived from the Bongo, Mittoo, and Babuckur. For the last twelve years the Gazelle has never been navigated by more than twenty boats. On their return journeys the soldiers of the ivory merchants carry their own slaves with them as payment and perquisites; but it is very rare for a boat to carry more than twenty or thirty of these slaves, so that the annual transport of slaves to Khartoom by this route never exceeded from 400 to 600. This fact is perfectly authentic, and thus it may be seen that even before Sir Samuel Baker’s expedition put a stop to it altogether, the slave-trade that was carried on down the river was quite insignificant compared to the overland traffic. For years there has been a public prohibition against bringing slaves down the White Nile into Khartoom, and ever and again stronger repressive measures have been introduced,which, however, have only had the effect of raising the land traffic to a premium; but as a general rule the Egyptian officials connive at the use of this comparatively unimportant channel of the trade, and pocket a quiet little revenue for themselves by demanding a sum varying from two to five dollars a head as hush-money. This expense, together with the continual risk of the property being confiscated in Khartoom, has always prevented the river trade from reaching a very flourishing condition; at all events, the Egyptian Government has hitherto had the best of it. Consuls from England, France, Germany, and Austria have been, and are still in residence at Khartoom, and a Copt was also temporarily appointed as consular agent for America; it was therefore an easy matter for the Egyptian officials to feign in the eyes of the world at large a wonderful amount of zeal and energy in the suppression of the slave-trade, especially as every confiscation threw the whole cargo into their hands; for the slaves were never sent back into their native lands, but the full-grown men were turned into soldiers, whilst the young girls and boys were divided at discretion amongst the troops of the garrison. In these transactions a formidable bond was always entered into by the receiver, from whom the former owner was at liberty at any time to re-purchase the slave.CARAVAN ROADS.6. As we have already seen, the great source of the slave-trade is to be found in the negro-countries to the south of Darfoor, which are included under the name of Dar Ferteet. The natives, who for the last forty years have been exposed to the rapacity of the slave-dealers, and have been annually exported to the number of from 12,000 to 15,000 souls, belong to the Kredy tribes; but the great bulk of the slaves come from the western Niam-niam territories, where the powerful King Mofio (whose residence is about under latitude 7° N. and longitude 24° E.) carries off on his own account, from the neighbouring nations who are not Niam-niam, largenumbers of slaves, and sells them to the Gellahbas, by whom they are conveyed by the overland routes already mentioned across Kordofan to Aboo Harras in the Egyptian dominions. There are other routes that lead direct to Darfoor, whence caravans start twice a year to Siout. Kordofan is in many ways in direct communication with the most important markets of the slave trade; the following being the most frequented caravan roads: (a) from Aboo Harras to KhartoomviâEl-Obeïd; (b) from Aboo Harras eastwards to Mussalemia through Sennaar; (c) from Aboo Harras across the Begudah steppes to DongolaviâEl-Safy; (d) from Aboo Harras to Berber along the Nile, for the purpose either of crossing the great Nubian Desert or of keeping farther to the east across the Red Sea. All these routes are associated to me by the many reminiscences of slave-transport which I recall as having myself witnessed there.7. A final and by no means unimportant source of the slave-trade is found in the mountain lands south of Kordofan. The general term for the negroes of these parts is Nooba,[89]a people that are much in demand on account of their beauty and intelligence. It was in these Nooba mountains that, after his bloody conquest of Kordofan, Mehemet Ali, the great reformer and usurper in Egypt, allowed kidnapping to be a legitimate source for the State revenue. From the slaves thus obtained he formed black regiments, by means of which he was to subdue the insalubrious Soudan, and paid his officers and subordinates with a portion of the plunder.[90]As the Egyptian Government itself was the first to teach its subjects to kidnap slaves, it behoves it now in these more humane times to make amends for all its past delinquencies,and I most cordially acknowledge that the present ruler, with all the resources at his command, is striving most honourably to accomplish the task.Slavery, with its inseparable adjunct the slave-trade, is almost as old as the world in which we dwell; there is not a page of history that does not bear its traces, and not a climate nor a people in which it has not made good its hold. An impartial survey of the past cannot but convince us that religious institutions have effected little or nothing in the cause of humanity, which has been left to take its own course of development. At the present day slavery is considered incompatible with Christian doctrine, but the history of ancient Christianity shows a different picture.[91]The oldest Fathers of the Church seem to have had no conception of there being anything wrong in possessing or selling slaves; for although Christianity inculcated the precepts of brotherly love, it also set forth the duty of slaves as slaves, rendering obedience and submission to those who were their masters. But the light that rose over Galilee emanated from a spirit so sublime that it has taken eighteen centuries to accomplish its course of penetrating the world, and only now is beginning to reveal itself in its true purity.But nowhere in the world has slavery been so thoroughly engrafted and so widely disseminated as in Africa; the earliest mariners who circumnavigated its coasts found a system of kidnapping everywhere established on a firm basis, and extending in its business relations far into the interior of the continent; the idea arose how advantageously the owners of land in the distant East might cull the costly products of their soil by the hands of slaves; and the kernel of a single plant, the coffee berry, became the means of uniting the remotest lands, and had the effect of throwinga large portion of the human race into subjection to their fellows, whilst Christian nations became the patrons and the propagators of the disgraceful traffic. It has therefore happened in the natural course of things that philanthropists have first applied their energies to the slave-trade in the West; the East has still to tarry for an enlightenment which is destined in the fulness of time to gladden a future chapter of history.ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.Half the task is now accomplished. Two great nations have speeded on the work: England in theory, North America in practice. For scores of years the ships of Great Britain cruised about the shores of Africa for the purpose of stopping the export of slaves; but although the outlay was great, the result was small; nevertheless a path was broken for the realisation of the ideas of Wilberforce, for whose noble endeavours the best sympathies of all nations had so long and ardently been enlisted. Finally the civil war broke out in North America, and great and glorious as had been the services rendered by England in the cause of humanity, honour greater and more glorious still was won in long and bloody strife by her brethren beyond the ocean. Now the black man has free footing in all parts of the Western Continent; and in the Eastern, the seed of liberty, sown scarcely ten years back, is already bearing its first fruit on African soil; the export of slaves from the coasts of Guinea, which in the middle of the last century amounted to 100,000 annually, exists no longer, and the shores are enlivened by populous towns, the inhabitants of which are engaged in peaceful traffic; all the work of a few years, and all owing to the happy termination of the American civil war.[92]Our age is now anxiously awaiting the fulfilment of the great work, but the other half of the task has still to be accomplished; the dark cloud of barbarism still lowers over the innermost regions of Africa, and Egypt, the oldest and richest land of the historical world, has its mission to perform. A great revolution has already begun, and although at present it affects only the surface, there is scarcely any reason to doubt that progress, alike spiritual and humane, will ultimately claim the victory. But the task is gigantic, and no one can be more sensible of this than the traveller who has lingered at any of the sources of the slave-trade. One point there is in which all are unanimous—that from Islamism no help can be expected, and that with Islamism no compact can be made. The second Sura of the Koran begins with the prescription: “To open the way of God, slay all those who would slay you; but be not yourselves the first to commence hostilities, for God loves not sinners; slay them wherever you meet them; drive them away from the spot from which they would drive you, for temptation is worse than a death-blow.” Islamism, the child of the deserts, has everywhere spread desolation, and wherever it has penetrated, deserts have arisen bleak and bare as the rocks of Nubia and Arabia, and under its influence every nation from Morocco to the Isles of Sunda has congealed into a homogeneous mass; inexorably it brings all to one level, remorselessly obliterating all traces of nationality or race.That Islamism is capable of progress is merely a supposition that has been hatched up from books, and has no foundation; there is likewise nothing to prove that it has fallen to decay; its condition appears to be that of one perpetual childhood. Its votaries are like the germs of vegetation that slumber in the sands of desert valleys; a drop of rain, a mere nothing, may call them to a transitory life; the plants bear their flowers, produce their fruit, then die away, and all becomes once more buried in a long deep sleep.EGYPTIAN APATHY.Another question then arises as to whether Mohammedans might be roused to civilisation by adopting Christianity. If a European residing in Egypt were asked whether it would be possible for the people to adopt European customs without forsaking Mohammedanism, he would at once answer in the negative; and if he were further pressed with the inquiry whether there was any prospect of the religion ever changing, his reply would again be that there is not the remotest hope of such an issue. And this opinion would seem to be borne out by what has been experienced in Algiers, where the gentle administration of the French Government, with its “Bureaux Arabes,” has always prevented the colony from becoming rich and populated by Europeans. The European costume is the only one of our civilised institutions that has hitherto been adopted in Egypt, but underneath this external garb there still lurks the old feeling of hatred for the Franks, a feeling which is perceptible only to those who penetrate into their domestic circles.But whether Egyptian officials wear an Oriental dress or a European dress, their ideas about slavery and the slave-trade are stereotyped; it is the fashion in good society to have a house full of slaves, and their presence is considered indispensable. Now if a man were to keep two, or even three, properly paid servants, and see that they did their duty with order and punctuality, he would be making some advance in civilisation: but now, what is the impression on entering the homes of the rich Egyptians? There, comfortably settled on the divan, sits the master of the house, silent and contemplative, a man of peace and quietness; nothing seems to disturb his composure; all the nobler passions are quite alien to his nature; hunting and fishing, riding and boating, are quite unknown to him, and he never puts himself to the trouble of taking a walk. If he is thirsty, he has only to raise his hand and say, “Ya, wolled” (here, fellow!) and in an instant his slave hands him a glass of water; orif he wants to smoke or to go to sleep, it is “Ya, wolled” just the same: everything is done for him, and he does not stir an inch to help himself. Now supposing some fine day all these “wolleds” were to take themselves off, what would befall these fine gentlemen on their divans, and where would they turn for all the trifling comforts of their daily life? Their sluggish nature would be invaded by a feeling of disquietude that they had never felt before; they must either die or become new creatures. This description, which applies to every rank of life, is only a reflection of the lethargic apathy that prevails in every Oriental State; an inference necessarily follows thatof equal importance with the abolition of slavery is the dawn of a new life in the East. If this regeneration is impossible, then slavery is a permanent necessity.The kind treatment of slaves, and the comfortable lot that they enjoy, in comparison to the hardships of their rude, rough homes, are pleas that have often been urged in extenuation of slavery in the East. It is certainly true that the contrast in slave-labour is very great, and whilst Europeans have looked upon their slaves as little better than useful domestic animals, the Oriental slave is a mere object of luxury. Only a small proportion of the slaves that are brought annually from the interior are employed in field-labour in Egypt, though rather more frequently in the Nubian provinces. The European, although he deprived the negro of his ordinary rights, still compelled him to become a useful member of society; the Oriental allows him a portion of his rights, but trains him up to general incapacity; the occupations of filling pipes, handing water, boiling coffee, and holding a salver, are not employments worthy of a man. Slavery in the East, in spite of its good living and fine clothes, is not at the best a very enviable position; but such as it is, it is purchased by these poor creatures at a heavy price; they have to submit to a long and painfuljourney across the deserts; they have to suffer the extremest hunger and fatigue, and to be exposed to the contagion of disorders, such as their fresh blood, pure with the simplicity of a life of nature, is especially liable to imbibe, and altogether they are doomed to be subject to hardships so severe as to decimate their ranks.DEPOPULATION OF AFRICA.But the worst feature in the case is the depopulation of Africa. I have myself seen whole tracts of country in Dar Ferteet turned into barren, uninhabited wildernesses, simply because all the young girls have been carried out of the country. Turks and Arabs will urge that they are only drawing off useless blood, that if these people are allowed to increase and multiply, they will only turn round and kill one another. But the truth is far otherwise. The time has come when the vast continent of Africa can no longer be dispensed with; it must take its share in the commerce of the world, and this cannot be effected until slavery is abolished. Sooner than the natives should be exterminated, I would see all Turks, Arabs, or whatever else these apathetic nations may be called, vanish from the face of the earth; they are only occupying the place of their betters; and negroes, if they only work, are their betters.I travelled in the Nile countries from 1863 to 1866, and again from 1868 to 1871; on my first journey I visited all the great markets of the slave-trade, Cairo, Siout, Djiddah, Suakin, Matamma in Gallabat, Khartoom, and Berber; in my second I reached its sources in the lands to the south of Darfoor and Kordofan. Throughout my wanderings I was ever puzzling out schemes for setting bounds to this inhuman traffic. The traveller in these lands is kept in one perpetual state of irritation by what he sees; on every road he meets long troops of slaves; on the sea and round the coasts he comes in contact with Arab boats crammed full of the same miserable creatures.Whilst exploring the coasts of Nubia and Egypt in 1864and 1865, I spent eight months on the Red Sea. The slave-trade there was then in a flourishing condition, but the accounts[93]of what I saw attracted no more attention than the complaints made by my predecessors. The consuls in Djiddah and other ports on the Red Sea were afraid to take any measures that were not sanctioned by European policy, and consequently Arabs were allowed to carry on that which amongst Spaniards and Portuguese would have been considered piracy. Not a man-of-war was to be seen cruising on the water, and yet one single gunboat would have sufficed to keep a check upon the intercourse between the opposite coasts, and to make the slave-trade an impossibility. A change has now been effected, and all the Powers that are interested in the matter have done their utmost to remedy the evil; but even on the Red Sea there still remains much to be done, and even now there are far too many secret landing-places and loopholes which escape the vigilance of the authorities.Many a time, under the consciousness that alone I was utterly powerless as a vindicator of humanity, I have restrained myself from the temptation to rescue slaves with my own hands. Once, between Khartoom and Berber, a lot of slaves was being brought from Kordofan, and I cut in two the leather thongs that bound them to their sheyba; but an ugly squabble was all that resulted from my interference. At other times I have vehemently remonstrated with the slave-dealers, when I have been a witness of any cruelty in their treatment of their property; but all to no purpose. It may therefore be imagined that a traveller in his fury and disgust will be led to devise all manner of schemes for eradicating the system, and although, when weighed in a calmer frame of mind, many of his plans will seem chimericaland even impracticable, yet it may be that their very apparent impracticability at least proves the gravity of the situation, and shows the inadequacy of the present means of suppression. But such as my schemes were, I will venture to indicate them here. They contain no shifts, no compromise, no expectation of better times, no dependence on Egyptian officials, not even a hope of assistance from the Viceroy, who, however good his intentions may be, has not the power to do much. A talent for organisation is not sufficient to rouse whole nations from their apathy; no small hero can do the work, but it would require a powerful reformer like Peter the Great, and a people like the Russians, or the Japanese of the present day, who would easily imbibe the ideas of the West. I beg therefore to submit the following assuggestions towards the suppression of the slave-trade; they embody at least the ideas of one who has been a witness of what transpires at the sources of the slave-trade in Central Africa.SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPRESSING THE SLAVE-TRADE.1. To place the country under an Administration formed on the European principle, and to appoint Europeans to fill the highest posts; the French have officials who understand the language, and the English have their experience to show them how Mohammedans may be pressed into the service of a well-regulated State. This plan would please the fellaheen of Egypt, whilst the rest of the people would be indifferent to it, as long as they were not severely taxed.[94]2. To appoint commissioners of slaves, who should travel about the provinces, and keep watch upon all the highways of the slave-trade; they should be invested with the fullest authority, and rank above the local officials. They should have the power of arresting and imprisoning every slavedealer,of sequestrating his property, and of equipping expeditions for the purpose of conveying the rescued slaves back to their own homes. As these expeditions would have to traverse hostile territory, they must necessarily be armed, and the commissioners of course should be perfectly incorruptible, inasmuch as they would be constantly exposed to the temptation of accepting bribes.3. To place the negro-countries that suffer most from the slave-trade under the protection of European Governments, by founding States expressly for their defence. The splitting up of African nations into small States has ever been the main hindrance to the introduction of civilisation amongst them; it is only large Powers, and such as are competent to organise themselves, that offer a likely foundation for the establishment of any thriving commerce or traffic.4. To introduce a Chinese immigration into the Mohammedan countries of Africa, of which the population gives little attention to agriculture. The four millions of Egyptians who are available for agricultural occupations are insufficient to do justice to the richness of the soil; but Chinese labourers would thrive well in Nubia, and would certainly, in the course of a few years, make the culture of the land highly remunerative.Under existing circumstances there can be no amelioration in the condition of the Egyptian States, until the slave-trade is not only held in check at its sources, but also stopped at its outlets. This can only be effected by the rich people resigning their slaves and replacing them by paid servants; the change would doubtless involve many in a large expense, for they would be still obliged to maintain their former slaves, the greater part of whom would refuse to leave their masters; still a great step would be gained if a law could be passed to give all slaves the right of demanding payment for their services; such a measurewould have the effect of putting a limit to the number of slaves that are kept, and by forcing the masters to demand more work from them, would have a tendency to rouse the Orientals from their humdrum ways. As long as a man retains his slaves as such, there is nothing to prevent him from making fresh purchases, so that any other measure than that which I have described would be so much trouble lost.THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.That there is any assistance to be expected, under the circumstances, from the Khedive, is quite a delusion. It is commonly supposed that the ruler of Egypt is a despot of the purest water; this, however, is a great mistake. In many respects the Egyptian Government is extremely mild; criminals and officials who have been remiss in their duty are rarely severely punished, and the only delinquency that it will not overlook is the refusal to pay taxes; and even here matters would not be so bad, if it were not that the disorderly administration involves the officials in making encroaching demands. The Viceroy has little power over the higher authorities, who manage to sneak behind the Crescent of Stamboul; he is no more than a Viceroy; the high-sounding Persian title of Khedive which he assumes is in reality no more than a title. He can only issue his orders, and then all boats that come down the White Nile are confiscated; and in Khartoom especially, where it is good policy to make a stir in the eyes of the European residents, all kinds of repressive measures are proposed; in displaying their zeal in the cause, the authorities often commit acts of the greatest injustice, and Mohammedans sometimes find their wives and families sequestrated as slaves, merely because they happen to be black. Such proceedings afford a fine opportunity for the subordinate officials to make a harvest out of the injured people by extorting ransom-money, and by making other extortionate demands. I can myself bear witness that several of myservants were deprived of their wives and children and put into chains, and I had to write to the Minister, and accompany the people to Cairo myself, before I could get justice done to them and their rights restored; and all this was only for the purpose of throwing dust in my eyes and inducing me to report upon the wonderful energy displayed by the local government in Khartoom.But meantime, the caravans find their way just the same as ever through Darfoor and Kordofan to Dongola and Siout, and still they are brought from Abyssinia through Gallabat to the Red Sea, and no one sees them but the traveller. In Kordofan, where there is a resident Egyptian Governor, the trade is truly enormous, and there is now as well the slave-trade from Darfoor. Siout, the common termination of the roads, is the only place where this trade can be cut off, and that could only be effected by the heaviest sacrifices for the commerce of Egypt. The conquest of Darfoor by the Egyptians would consequently be a great step in advance; but I most emphatically protest against Ismail Pasha being allowed to send Turkish troops into the heathen negro-countries, for it may literally be said that “where they have been, no grass will grow.” The kindest thing that the enlightened ruler of Egypt can do for these lands is to leave them alone; they are not productive, and if they were, they are too far from the navigable rivers to make any of their products that are in less demand than ivory of any mercantile value.FOOTNOTES:[82]The Baggara butter is of an excellent quality. It is packed in wicker baskets, which are made impervious to damp by being smeared inside with the pulp of the balanites.[83]The Fakis who come from Darfoor are probably the only people in the world who still practise the abominable business of emasculating boys, and eunuchs are rapidly becoming more rare.[84]These belong to the tribes of the Sehre, the Nduggoo, the Fakkerey, the Baddoh, and the Tabboh, &c.[85]A rottoli is equal to 15oz.13drs.avoirdupois. Thirty rottoli is here a somewhat imaginary weight, being not worth more than eighteen Egyptian rottoli.[86]The portrait on the following page is that of a Babuckur slave bound by a leather rope. Her piteous expression of countenance shows her distress at her condition.[87]The accompanying illustration represents one of the daily scenes in my travelling life, and may serve to give an idea how slavery degrades a woman almost to a level with the brutes. A newly-captured slave, with the heavy yoke of the sheyba fastened to her neck, has been sentenced to work at the murhaga, whilst a boy, who has been placed as a spy to keep a constant watch upon her conduct, holds up the yoke in order that it should not interfere with the freedom of her movements.[88]I should point out that the total number of the soldiers maintained in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district by the twelve great mercantile firms in Khartoom amounts to 11,000. I have here given the lowest computation.[89]This word must not be confounded with Nubian, a word which has come down from antiquity, and which, like the term Egypt, did not originally apply to the inhabitants of the Nile Valley.[90]If this account of slave capture in the time of Mehemet Ali should appear incredible, I would refer the reader to a book that contains the narrative of an eye-witness: Pallme, ‘Travels in Kordofan,’ London, 1844.[91]Under the most Christian-minded Popes of the eighth century, slave-markets and the slave-trade flourished unhindered, not only in Italy, but in Rome itself.[92]I would refer especially to the district of Lagos, where the advance has been rapid to a degree hitherto unheard of in the history of the continent. In 1871 the entire commerce of the British possessions on the West Coast amounted to 2,556,000l., and may at the present time be estimated at 3,000,000 sterling.[93]Detailed accounts appear in the‘Zeitschrift für Allgem. Erdkunde.’Vol. xviii.1866.[94]The long possession of almost sovereign rights enjoyed by European consuls in the East has given the people a confidence in their sense of justice, and would prevent them from fearing any encroachment on their religious opinions.
SLAVE-TRADERSSLAVE-TRADERS FROM KORDOFAN.
SLAVE-TRADERS FROM KORDOFAN.
KatherineII.’s villages. Goods bartered by slave-traders. Agents of slave-traders. Baseness of Fakis. Horrible scene. Enthusiasm of slave-dealers. Hospitality shown to slave-dealers. Three classes of Gellahbas. Intercourse with Mofio. Price of slaves. Relative value of races. Private slaves of the Nubians. Voluntary slaves. Slave-women. The murhaga. Agricultural slave-labour. Population of the district. Five sources of the slave trade. Repressive measures of the Government. Slave-raids of Mehemet Ali. Slow progress of humanity. Accomplishment of half the work. Egypt’s mission. No co-operation from Islamism. Regeneration of the East. Depopulation of Africa. Indignation of the traveller. Means for suppressing the slave trade. Commissioners of slaves. Chinese immigration. Foundation and protection of great States.
KatherineII.’s villages. Goods bartered by slave-traders. Agents of slave-traders. Baseness of Fakis. Horrible scene. Enthusiasm of slave-dealers. Hospitality shown to slave-dealers. Three classes of Gellahbas. Intercourse with Mofio. Price of slaves. Relative value of races. Private slaves of the Nubians. Voluntary slaves. Slave-women. The murhaga. Agricultural slave-labour. Population of the district. Five sources of the slave trade. Repressive measures of the Government. Slave-raids of Mehemet Ali. Slow progress of humanity. Accomplishment of half the work. Egypt’s mission. No co-operation from Islamism. Regeneration of the East. Depopulation of Africa. Indignation of the traveller. Means for suppressing the slave trade. Commissioners of slaves. Chinese immigration. Foundation and protection of great States.
Probablythe overland slave-trade along the roads of Kordofan had never been so flourishing as in the winter of 1870-71, when I found myself at its very fountain-head. Already, in the previous summer, had Sir Samuel Baker, with praiseworthy energy, commenced scouring the waters of the Upper Nile, and by capturing all slave-vessels and abolishing a large “chasua” belonging to the Mudir of Fashoda, had left no doubt as to the earnestness of his purpose; but whether it was that his peremptory measures had driven the Gellahbas of Kordofan to a common centre, or whether the reported scarcity of cotton-stuffs in the Seribas had raised their hopes of doing some business, or whether, as perhaps was most likely, the introduction of Egyptian troops into the Bahr-el-Ghazal district opened a fresh and attractive avenue to their avarice—one thing is certain that neither Baker nor the Government (the Viceroy being free from blame in the matter) accomplished anything like a practicalsupervision over the local authorities in Kordofan. Satisfied with having, to the eyes of the world at large, made a clean sweep of the waters of the Nile, Sir Samuel and his supporters did not perceive, or could not remedy, what was going on on either side of the great river-highway. To anyone who should now enter the country under the impression that the slave-trade on the Upper Nile was for ever abolished, and should subsequently learn by contrast the true condition of the lands, a scene would be presented that might well remind him of the painted villages that were exhibited to Katherine II. on her tour through Southern Russia.
GOODS FOR BARTER.
The sheikh Seebehr complained bitterly of the great rush of Gellahbas to his establishment, and told me that his corn was so nearly exhausted that his land was threatened with famine. From his own mouth I learnt that during the winter two large caravans had come through Shekka, and had brought into the country the enormous quantity of 2000 of these petty adventurers; by the middle of January the number was still larger, and at the beginning of February was swollen again by 600 or 700 more.
All these traders break their journeys across the steppes of the Baggara by making a lengthened stay at Shekka, for the purpose of purchasing oxen both for riding and for carrying burdens; here also it is their practice to lay in a stock of butter[82]for bartering in the Seribas, where it is in great demand. The goods that they bring into the Seriba districts are principally calico, “trumba,” a coarse material woven in Sennaar, and English cotton of two sorts, “amerikani and damoor;” they also make a market of a number of firearms, mostly ordinary double-barrelled guns, of Belgian manufacture, worth from ten to twenty dollars apiece; in addition to these they frequently carry on a brisk trade inall kinds of knick-knacks—pipes, looking-glasses, Turkish slippers, red fezzes, and carpets.
Every Gellahba, according to his means, takes into his service a number of the Baggara, to whom he entrusts the training and management of his cattle. Camels invariably succumb to the climate in a very short time, and are consequently but rarely used as a means of transport. All the traders ride asses, and it may safely be asserted that they pass the greater part of their lives on the backs of these animals; in fact, a petty pedlar of the Soudan without his donkey would be a sight almost as remarkable as a Samoyede without his reindeer. Besides its rider the donkey will carry not much less than ten pieces of cotton; if it survives the journey it is exchanged in the Seribas for a slave, or perhaps for two; its load of goods will bring in three more, and thus, under favourable circumstances, a speculative vagrant, who has started with nothing beyond his donkey and five pounds’ worth of goods, will find himself in possession of at least four slaves, which may be disposed of in Khartoom for 250 dollars (50l.) The return journey is always made on foot, and the unfortunate slaves have to carry all the articles necessary for travelling.
FAKIS.
But quite apart from these pettifogging traders, whose innate propensity for trafficking in human beings can only be compared to the ineradicable love of usury that characterises the itinerant Polish Jews, there are numbers of more important investors, who, protected by a large retinue of armed slaves and accompanied by long trains of loaded oxen and asses, carry on a business which brings many hundreds of their fellow-creatures into the market. These more wholesale dealers have their partners or agents permanently settled in regular establishments in the large Seribas. More frequently than not these agents are priests, or Fakis as they are called, though strictly the term Faki belongs only to those whose profession it is to explain the Scriptures; it is,however, an indisputable fact that the slave-trade is included amongst the secondary occupations of this class, and, as matter of fact, they are all more or less soiled with the defilements of this scandalous business. In the larger towns, and especially in Khartoom, there is every opportunity for observing their doings, and things often come to light which, except they were actually witnessed, would seem perfectly incredible. In finding scope for their commercial propensities they practice the most heterogeneous trades: the poorer Fakis act as brokers, retail-dealers, amulet-writers, quacks, schoolmasters, and match-makers; whilst the richer and more educated class are directors of schools and managers of inns, where they place paid subordinates to carry on their business. The doctrines of the Prophet are taught in their schools, whilst the merissa-shops are dedicated in a large degree to the worship of Venus. But, in spite of everything, these people are held in the greatest veneration, and their reputation for piety not unfrequently survives the generation in which they live; they are buried in the public places for prayer, the place of interment being marked by small white banners as hallowed ground. A few words will suffice to exhibit these holy men in their true colours.
With the Suras of the Koran in one hand and their operating-knife[83]in the other, they rove from Seriba to Seriba all over the country, leading what might be termed in the most rigid sense a life of perpetual prayer; every other word that they utter is either an invocation of Allah or a direct appeal to Mohammed-el-Rasool. But the wide difference between faith and practice is exemplified in the unrighteous dealings of these Fakis; never did I see slaves so mercilessly treated as by these fanatics, and yet they would confer upon the poor souls, whom they had purchasedlike stolen goods, for a mere bagatelle, the most religious of names, such as “Allagabo” (i. e.given by God). The following incident will show that with their horrible blasphemy they do not hesitate to combine such cruelty as the commonest scavenger would shrink from using to a dying dog.
In one of their convoys were some poor, miserable Mittoo-slaves, almost too emaciated to bear the heavy yoke (the sheyba) that was fastened to their necks. Going, as I was wont, to my kitchen garden, I had constantly to pass the huts in which they were kept. One morning, hearing an unusual outcry, I paused to inquire what was the matter. A scene, such as my pen can only indignantly depict, met my gaze. A dying man had been dragged from the hut, and was being belaboured by the cruelest of lashes to prove whether life was yet extinct. The long white stripes on the withered skin testified to the agonies that the poor wretch was enduring, and the vociferations I had beard were the shouts of his persecutors, who were yelling out their oaths and imprecations. “The cursed dog, he is not dead yet! the heathen rascal won’t die!” Then, as though resolved to accumulate cruelty upon cruelty, the Faki’s slave-boys not only began to break out into revolting jeers, but actually played at football with the writhing body of the still gasping victim; truly it seemed to be with justice that La Fontaine had recorded: “Cet âge est sans pitié.” The horrible contortions of the sufferer’s countenance, even if they failed to excite commiseration, were sufficient to melt the hardest of hearts; but so far from this, the unfeeling reprobates were loud in their asseverations that the poor wretch was only shamming, and intended to sneak off unobserved. His pitiable appearance, however, gainsaid their words, and he was finally dragged off into the woods, where a few weeks afterwards I found his skull, which I deposited with those of many others of his fellow-sufferers in the Museum in Berlin.
Such is the history of the skull marked No. 36 in my collection, and such are the deeds perpetrated in the very face of death by Mohammedan priests, who consider themselves the very pillars of their faith. And yet our missionaries, perhaps the most guileless men in the world, start by putting themselves on equal terms with these Mussulmen, and endeavour to make headway against their faith, when it is really a simple case of morality that is at issue. The history of Islamism has ever been a history of crime, and to Christian morality alone do we owe all the social good that we enjoy.
GELLAHBAS.
It must not, however, be supposed that the minor retail trade in slaves is uniformly lucrative. The smaller Gellahbas are exposed to numberless mischances; if their ox or ass should die upon the journey, they must at once dispose of their other property at any price; then, again, they are liable to suffer from a lack of corn during their journey across the wilderness; and, what is perhaps the sorest disaster that can befall them, their slaves so frequently run away, that their profits are dispersed before they are realised. Their powers of endurance are truly wonderful. I repeatedly asked them what induced them to leave their homes, to change their mode of living, and to suffer the greatest hardships in a strange land, all for the sake of pursuing an occupation that only in the rarest cases would keep them from absolute want. “We want ‘groosh’” (piastres), they would reply; “so why should we live at home?” And when I further urged that they had far better lead respectable lives, and either grow corn or breed cattle, they answered, “No, that wouldn’t answer our purpose; when we are at home, we are exhausted by the demands of the Government, and corn doesn’t bring us in any money.” Not that the Government is really so hard upon the people as they assert; the fact is that they are incorrigibly lazy, and have so great a dislike to work of any sort that theydo not care to be able to pay their taxes, which do not much exceed those that are usually demanded in Egypt proper. To expect that these slave-traders should renounce of their own accord the business which suits them so completely, and for which they will endure any amount of hardship, would be almost as unreasonable as to expect Esquimaux to grow melons.
All trade is undeniably in a very stagnant condition in the Egyptian Soudan; the rich man gives nothing away, but lives like a dog, and has no desire beyond that of privately amassing wealth; of domestic comfort, or luxury even on the limited Oriental scale, he has not the faintest conception. There is consequently no demand for labour, no circulation of money in wages, and it is manifestly impossible for trade to flourish as long as the rich man consumes nothing; and equally impossible for the poor man to thrive while the rich man keeps his retinue of slaves, who do all he wants without requiring payment. Thus slavery itself ever reproduces slavery.
One material alleviation to the position of the Gellahbas is the open hospitality they meet with in all the Seribas. Besides the mercenaries of the various ivory companies—the controllers, clerks, agents, storekeepers, and other officials—they find numbers of their compatriots and brethren in the faith who have taken up their abode in these lands, and who subsist free of expense on what is gained by the sweat of the negroes; mere idle drones, as it were, living on the produce of the workers. The rabble thus collected consists partly of escaped convicts and partly of refugees or outlaws who are evading their proper punishment, and if they could be swept from off the face of the land, there would then be food enough for half a score of regiments, should the Egyptian Government determine to station them in the country.
Just in the same way as in the Egyptian Soudan, the actual cost of travelling in these lands is next to nothing;every new comer to a Seriba is treated to kissere and melah, and his slaves and donkey are provided with corn enough to keep them from starvation. Wherever they go the Gellahbas may stay as long as they please, and accordingly they wander all over the district from the west to the east, as far as the Rohl and the Dyemit, and only just before the commencement of the rainy season they reassemble at their common place of rendezvous in Seebehr’s Seriba, where they re-organise their caravans, and make their final preparations for starting for Kordofan.
THREE CLASSES OF GELLAHBAS.
The Gellahbas who, either on their own account or as representatives of others, carry on the slave-trade in this district may be divided into three classes:—
1. The petty dealers, who, with only a single ass or bullock, come in January and return in March or April.
2. The agents or partners of the great slave merchants in Darfoor and Kordofan, who have settled in the Seribas, nearly always in the capacity of Fakis.
3. The colonised slave-dealers, who live on their own property in the Dehms of the west.
The last of these form the only class who ever penetrate beyond the bounds of the Seriba district into the negro-countries. They nearly all direct their course from the Dehms in Dar Ferteet to the territories of Mofio, the great Niam-niam king of the west, and are accompanied by considerable bands of armed men, whom they recruit for this purpose from the best of their slaves. Contrary to the policy of the Khartoom ivory-merchants, the Gellahbas have by degrees supplied King Mofio with such a number of firearms that he is now said to have at his command a force of 300 fully-equipped warriors, a formidable fighting-force with which he seriously threatens any expedition of the Khartoomers that may enter his dominions. His store of slaves appears absolutely inexhaustible; year after year his territories go on yielding thousands upon thousands,which he obtains either from the slave tribes[84]that he has subjected or by raids organised against the surrounding nations.
As regards the price paid for slaves, I can only report what I personally witnessed in the Seribas. Copper and calico are used as the principal mediums of exchange. Calico is very fluctuating in its value, which is always first reduced to its equivalent in copper. In 1871 thirty rottoli of copper[85]in Dehm Nduggo and twenty-five rottoli in the Bongo and Dyoor districts was taken for young slaves of both sexes of the class called “sittahsi” (literally, six spans high), meaning children of eight or ten years of age; thus making the average price in this country, according to the value of copper in Khartoom, to be about 7½ Maria Theresa dollars (1l.10s.); particularly pretty women-slaves, called “nadeef,”i. e.clean or pure, fetch nearly double that price, and are very rarely procured for exportation, because they are in great demand amongst the numerous settlers in the country. Strong adult women, who are ugly, are rather cheaper than the young girls, whilst old women are worth next to nothing, and can be bought for a mere bagatelle. Full-grown men are rarely purchased as slaves, being troublesome to control and difficult of transport. Slaves in the East are usually in demand asobjets de luxe, and consequently lead an idle life, and are not valued according to their capabilities for labour.
In consequence of the glut of wares in the market during the winter of 1871, the quoted value of slaves rose to almost double that of the previous year, and very high prices were paid in cotton stuffs. As much as four or six pieces of theordinary sort (damoor) were paid for the “sittahsi,” each piece measuring twenty-four yards in length, and worth two Maria Theresa dollars in Khartoom. Next to white cotton materials firearms are a very favourite means of payment, and bring in a far larger proportional profit. For an ordinary double-barrelled gun of French or Belgian manufacture, a slave-dealer can purchase two or three sittahsi, and if the weapon has gilt facings he can sometimes obtain as many as five for it.
PRICE OF SLAVES.
The price of slaves in Khartoom at that time might be reckoned to be at least six times their original cost; of course it will be understood that the value would be regulated to a great extent by the more or less severe measures taken by the local government for the suppression of the trade; but at the time of my departure from Khartoom, at a period when the market was tolerably unrestrained, no slave could be obtained for less than forty Maria Theresa dollars, and that was the lowest price given for elderly women only fit for household service.
Babuckur slaveBabuckur slave.
Babuckur slave.
The slaves brought from the Bahr-el-Ghazal districts vary in value according to their nationality. The Bongo are the most prized, as they are easily taught and are docile and faithful, and are, besides, good-looking and industrious. True Niam-niam, especially young girls, are, however, much dearer than the best Bongo slaves, but they are so extremely rare as hardly to admit of having a price quoted. The Mittoo are of little value, being ugly, lean, and incapable of enduring fatigue or even of undertaking any regular work. No amount of good living or kind treatment can overcome the love of freedom of the Babuckur; they take every oportunity of effecting an escape, and can only be secured by fetters and by the yoke;[86]the same may also be said of the Loobah and Abaka. The demand for slaves in the Seribasthrough which I travelled would alone suffice to support a very flourishing trade. Numerically the Mohammedan settlers bear a high ratio to the native population, and in some of the western territories, as amongst the Kredy, Golo, and Sehre, they are actually considerably in excess of the total number of natives, who only consist of bearers and agricultural labourers. Taken one with another every Nubian possesses about three slaves, and thus it may easily be conceived that the computation is not too high that places the total number of private slaves in the country at between 50,000 and 60,000. These private slaves are quite distinct from those that are kept in store and used as merchandise; they may be divided into four categories:—
1. Boys from seven to ten years of age, who are employed to carry guns and ammunition: every Nubian soldier possessesat least one of these juvenille armour-bearers. When they get older they are included in my next category.
FAROOKH.
2. The second class includes the greater part of the full-grown natives in the Seribas. They are termed “Farookh,” “Narakeek,” or “Bazingir,” and, being provided with guns, form a kind of Nizzam, whose duty it is to accompany the natives in all their expeditions, whether for war or for trading purposes. These black soldiers constitute nearly half the fighting force in all the Seribas, and play a prominent part in time of war. It is the duty of the Farookh to scour the negro villages in search of corn, to assemble the bearers, and to keep under coercion any that are refractory in the wilderness. In every action the hardest work is put upon their shoulders, and they have not only to sustain the chief brunt of any actual conflict with the savages, but to provide for the safe custody of all prisoners. If the controllers of the Seribas had a sufficient number of these Farookh, they might well dispense altogether with their Nubian soldiers, except for one reason, to which I have already referred, viz. the constant danger of their running away, a risk that makes them practically less reliable than the Nubians, who never think of such a thing, and even if they did, would only join another company. The Farookh have wives, children, and land in the Seribas, and some of the elder amongst them have even slave boys of their own to carry their guns. Their ranks are largely increased after every Niam-niam expedition, as numbers of young natives will often voluntarily attach themselves to the Nubians, and, highly delighted at getting a cotton shirt and gun of their own, will gladly surrender themselves to slavery, attracted moreover by the hope of finding better food in the Seribas than their own native wildernesses can produce. The mere offer of these simple inducements in any part of the Niam-niam lands would be sufficient to gather a whole host of followers and vassals, and during our journey I myselfreceived proposals to join our band from young people in all parts of the country. I mention this circumstance just to illustrate my opinion of how easily the Egyptian Government might, without using any compulsion, enlist here as many soldiers as it required. I am persuaded that, without any difficulty, whole regiments of Nizzam troops might be raised from amongst the Niam-niam in the course of comparatively a very few days.
3. The third class of private slaves is formed of the women who are kept in the houses. Every soldier has one of these slaves, and sometimes more, in which case one is advanced to the position of favourite, whilst the rest are employed in the ordinary routine of preparing meal, or in the tedious process of baking kissere. These women are passed like dollars from hand to hand, a proceeding which is a prolific source of the rapid spread of those loathsome disorders by which the lands within the jurisdiction of the Seribas have been infested ever since their subjugation by the Khartoomers. In accordance with the universal rule in the Mohammedan Soudan, the children of a slave are reared as legitimate, and the mother receives the title of wife. The daily conversation of the Nubian mercenaries is a continual proof that their thoughts are always running on their slaves both male and female. If a quarrel arises amongst a group of people, one is certain to be correct in surmising that some slave or other is being reclaimed or the payment due for her is being demanded; or if there is a sudden uproar, the burden of the cry is sure to be, “A slave has run away!” “Kummarah olloroh,” shout the Bongo, and “Ollomollo, ollomollo,” resounds from every side. Many and many a time have I been roused from my slumbers in the early morning by such cries as these, and it is one of the occupations of the Seriba people and their negroes to hunt down and recapture these runaway women. Hunger often obliges the fugitives to take refuge in a strange Seriba; here they are looked uponas lucky windfalls, and are either seized by force or are quietly disposed of to the itinerant Gellahbas; and if the rightful owner subsequently appears to claim his property, a violent squabble will inevitably be the result. These slaves are thus the subject of one incessant wrangling; and if a slave absent herself only temporarily without the consent of her master, she will at once excite his jealousy, displeasure, and mistrust.
HOUSEHOLD DRUDGES.
The single slave of the poorer soldiers is a regular drudge, or maid-of-all work: she has to bring water from the well in great pitchers, which she carries on her head; she does all the washing, if there is anything to wash; she grinds the corn upon the murhaga, makes the dough, roasts the kissere on the doka, and finally prepares the melah, a horrible greasy concoction of water, sesame-oil or pounded sesame, bamia-pods, and corchorus leaves, beautifully seasoned with cayenne pepper and alkali. Not only has she to do the sweeping of the whole house, but she has to get wood from the wilderness, and, when on a journey, to supply the want of any other bearer by carrying all the lumber of her lord and master. In the larger households, however, of the more important people, such as controllers or agents, where slaves are numerous, each woman has her own allotted task, and a large number of boys is employed, who follow their master on his travels, each carrying a single weapon, either a gun, a pistol, or a sword. From all this some little idea may be gained of the unwieldy crowd that must necessarily be attached to every march undertaken by the Nubian mercenaries. To a force of 200 soldiers on our Niam-niam expedition there were as many as 300 women and boys; a party which, as well as immoderately increasing the length of the procession, by the clatter of their cooking utensils and their everlasting wrangling (scenes of which I have already given some illustration), kept up a perpetual turmoil which at times threatened a hopeless confusion.
Slave at workSlave at work.
Slave at work.
The rude and primitive manner of grinding corn employed throughout the Mohammedan Soudan contributes more than may at first sight seem credible to perpetuate the immense demand for female slave labour. The very laborious process is performed by pounding the grain on a large stone, called murhaga, by means of a smaller stone held in the hand; it is the only method of grinding corn known to the majority of African nations, and is so slow that by the hardest day’s work a woman is able to prepare only a sufficient quantity of meal for five or six men.[87]A mill worked by oxen has been erected by the Government in Khartoom, not only for the use of the troops, but also to enable private individuals to have their corn ground at a moderate price; but in spite of this provision the durra-corn is still pounded on the murhagain all the houses; not a single resident takes advantage of the improved facility that is offered. Until this lavish waste of human strength is suppressed, either by the introduction of mechanical handmills or by putting a tax upon the murhaga, no hope is to be entertained of any diminution in the demand for female slaves. This is but one instance, yet it may suffice to show how gradually and consistently one must set to work ultimately to gain the suppression of slavery in the Soudan: nowhere can old institutions be declared to be abolished, until new institutions have been provided to take their place.
SLAVES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE.
4. In my fourth and last category I would include all slaves of both sexes who are employed exclusively in husbandry. Only the men in more important situations, such as the controllers of the Seribas, the clerks, the dragomen (generally natives who have been brought up like Arabs in Khartoom), the Fakis, and the colonised Gellahbas actually cultivate the soil and possess cattle; the poorer people being content with a little occasional gardening and the possession of a few goats and fowls. Old women, who are too weak for anything else, are employed to weed the fields, and at harvest time the Farookh are called to their assistance. Statute labour as applied to agriculture is nowhere demanded of the natives, although it would really act less disadvantageously on the condition of the population than the arbitrary system that allows any controller of a Seriba to seize the children from the native villages and dispose of them to the Gellahbas, a proceeding that is generally carried out as a punishment for offences like dishonesty, treachery, or attempts to abscond.
The remote position of the Seribas places the controllers far beyond any authority, and makes them quite independent of the jurisdiction of the chiefs of the trading-firms, who are most of them settled in Khartoom without much care for either their own advantage or for that of the country;it thus becomes necessary to appoint trustworthy people to the post, and consequently the head-controllers are in many cases slaves who have been reared in their master’s house. A controller has every opportunity if he pleases of coming to an arrangement with the soldiers and other officials, and in concert with them of acting very much to his chiefs disadvantage; or he might sell the negroes on his territories to the Gellahbas, turn the proceeds into copper, and retire as a rich man to Darfoor, already a place of refuge for many delinquents from the Egyptian Soudan.
The sub-controllers and agents in the subsidiary Seribas are, on the other hand, far less trustworthy; their position is often held only for a temporary period, and consequently their interests are not so firmly bound up with those of their chiefs as those of his former slaves. Then, too, the smaller Seribas are often so far apart that the Vokeel can transact all their business without any supervision from the head controller; all this is well known to the itinerant slave-dealers, who have a special preference for visiting these minor settlements, because they are aware that they can there buy up numbers of boys and girls, disregardful of the fact that, as future bearers and agricultural labourers, the children are vassals belonging to the soil, and form part and parcel of the property of the head of the firm.
After thus considering slave-labour in its separate branches, and gaining some idea of the immense and wasteful expenditure of human energy that goes on in the Seribas of the Khartoomers, we may turn our attention to the numerical proportion of the foreign settlers (with whom must be included their private slaves) to the actual aboriginal population. The following table is founded upon a careful calculation; the results are given in round numbers, as fuller details would demand more space than could be afforded here.
CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS.
Proportions of thePopulationin the District of theKhartoomers’ Seribason the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
In the next place let us turn our attention to those slaves who are regarded as actual merchandise, and who are dragged into bondage from the Upper Nile lands solely for purposes of profit. In order to demonstrate how important at the present time is the part taken by the district of the Gazelle in the entire African slave-trade, I will take a brief survey of the sources which all the year round supply the endless succession of the dealers with fresh stores of living wares,and which, branching off into three great highways to the north, yield up their very life-blood to gratify the insatiable and luxurious demands of Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and Asiatic Turkey. Previous travellers have estimated the total of the annual traffic in this immense region to be 25,000, but I shall show by a very summary reckoning that this is far too low a computation. The three currents for the slave-trade in north-east Africa (a region corresponding to what may be geographically termed the “Nile district”) are the natural highways of the Nile and the Red Sea, and the much frequented caravan roads that, traversing the deserts at no great distance to the west of the Nile, find their outlet either in Siout or near Cairo. As a proof of how little these roads even now are known, I may mention that when, in the summer of 1871, a caravan with 2000 slaves arrived direct from Wadai, it caused quite a sensation in the neighbourhood of the pyramids of Gizeh; it was supposed to have traversed a geographicalterra incognita, and it divided and dispersed itself as mysteriously as it came. It is far more difficult to place the deserts under inspection than the ocean, and this is especially the case in the vicinity of a river, where a caravan can easily supply itself with water for many days. The borders of a desert are like the coasts of an unnavigable ocean. The plan, however, of establishing a system of control along the borders of the Nile Valley, corresponding to the coastguard cruisers on our seas, has never yet been tried.
SOURCES OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.
The following are the territories that form the sources of the slave-trade in North-Eastern Africa (Nile district):—
1. The Galla countries to the south of Abyssinia, between latitude 3° and 8° N. The outlets from them are: (a)viâShoa to Zeyla; (b)viâGodyam through Abyssinia to Matamma and Suakin, or to Massowa and smaller unguarded coast towns; (c)viâFazogl to Sennaar, where the largest market is not in, but above Khartoom, in a place calledMussalemia; the merchandise brought by this route is abundant and valuable. According to the reports of the Abyssinian collectors of customs the number of slaves in Matamma (Gallabat) amounted in 1865 alone to 18,000.
2. The second source is found amongst the Berta negroes above Fazogl, and amongst the Dinka above Sennaar, between the White and Blue Niles. These are likewise carried to Mussalemia and Khartoom, but in no considerable numbers.
3. The Agow, in the heart of Abyssinia between Tigre and Amhara, together with the people on the north-west frontier of the Abyssinian highland, are also exposed to plunder of the persons of their sons, on account of their disorganised condition and their position on the wild border-land. The channel for their dispersion is across the Red Sea to Djidda.
4. The upper district of the White Nile, inclusive of the Albert and Victoria Lakes, though the slave-trade really begins at latitude 5° N. The expedition of Sir Samuel Baker has stopped this source. The annual produce in the most favourable years did not exceed 1000.
5. The supply of slaves in the upper district of the Bahr-el-Ghazal is chiefly derived from the Bongo, Mittoo, and Babuckur. For the last twelve years the Gazelle has never been navigated by more than twenty boats. On their return journeys the soldiers of the ivory merchants carry their own slaves with them as payment and perquisites; but it is very rare for a boat to carry more than twenty or thirty of these slaves, so that the annual transport of slaves to Khartoom by this route never exceeded from 400 to 600. This fact is perfectly authentic, and thus it may be seen that even before Sir Samuel Baker’s expedition put a stop to it altogether, the slave-trade that was carried on down the river was quite insignificant compared to the overland traffic. For years there has been a public prohibition against bringing slaves down the White Nile into Khartoom, and ever and again stronger repressive measures have been introduced,which, however, have only had the effect of raising the land traffic to a premium; but as a general rule the Egyptian officials connive at the use of this comparatively unimportant channel of the trade, and pocket a quiet little revenue for themselves by demanding a sum varying from two to five dollars a head as hush-money. This expense, together with the continual risk of the property being confiscated in Khartoom, has always prevented the river trade from reaching a very flourishing condition; at all events, the Egyptian Government has hitherto had the best of it. Consuls from England, France, Germany, and Austria have been, and are still in residence at Khartoom, and a Copt was also temporarily appointed as consular agent for America; it was therefore an easy matter for the Egyptian officials to feign in the eyes of the world at large a wonderful amount of zeal and energy in the suppression of the slave-trade, especially as every confiscation threw the whole cargo into their hands; for the slaves were never sent back into their native lands, but the full-grown men were turned into soldiers, whilst the young girls and boys were divided at discretion amongst the troops of the garrison. In these transactions a formidable bond was always entered into by the receiver, from whom the former owner was at liberty at any time to re-purchase the slave.
CARAVAN ROADS.
6. As we have already seen, the great source of the slave-trade is to be found in the negro-countries to the south of Darfoor, which are included under the name of Dar Ferteet. The natives, who for the last forty years have been exposed to the rapacity of the slave-dealers, and have been annually exported to the number of from 12,000 to 15,000 souls, belong to the Kredy tribes; but the great bulk of the slaves come from the western Niam-niam territories, where the powerful King Mofio (whose residence is about under latitude 7° N. and longitude 24° E.) carries off on his own account, from the neighbouring nations who are not Niam-niam, largenumbers of slaves, and sells them to the Gellahbas, by whom they are conveyed by the overland routes already mentioned across Kordofan to Aboo Harras in the Egyptian dominions. There are other routes that lead direct to Darfoor, whence caravans start twice a year to Siout. Kordofan is in many ways in direct communication with the most important markets of the slave trade; the following being the most frequented caravan roads: (a) from Aboo Harras to KhartoomviâEl-Obeïd; (b) from Aboo Harras eastwards to Mussalemia through Sennaar; (c) from Aboo Harras across the Begudah steppes to DongolaviâEl-Safy; (d) from Aboo Harras to Berber along the Nile, for the purpose either of crossing the great Nubian Desert or of keeping farther to the east across the Red Sea. All these routes are associated to me by the many reminiscences of slave-transport which I recall as having myself witnessed there.
7. A final and by no means unimportant source of the slave-trade is found in the mountain lands south of Kordofan. The general term for the negroes of these parts is Nooba,[89]a people that are much in demand on account of their beauty and intelligence. It was in these Nooba mountains that, after his bloody conquest of Kordofan, Mehemet Ali, the great reformer and usurper in Egypt, allowed kidnapping to be a legitimate source for the State revenue. From the slaves thus obtained he formed black regiments, by means of which he was to subdue the insalubrious Soudan, and paid his officers and subordinates with a portion of the plunder.[90]
As the Egyptian Government itself was the first to teach its subjects to kidnap slaves, it behoves it now in these more humane times to make amends for all its past delinquencies,and I most cordially acknowledge that the present ruler, with all the resources at his command, is striving most honourably to accomplish the task.
Slavery, with its inseparable adjunct the slave-trade, is almost as old as the world in which we dwell; there is not a page of history that does not bear its traces, and not a climate nor a people in which it has not made good its hold. An impartial survey of the past cannot but convince us that religious institutions have effected little or nothing in the cause of humanity, which has been left to take its own course of development. At the present day slavery is considered incompatible with Christian doctrine, but the history of ancient Christianity shows a different picture.[91]The oldest Fathers of the Church seem to have had no conception of there being anything wrong in possessing or selling slaves; for although Christianity inculcated the precepts of brotherly love, it also set forth the duty of slaves as slaves, rendering obedience and submission to those who were their masters. But the light that rose over Galilee emanated from a spirit so sublime that it has taken eighteen centuries to accomplish its course of penetrating the world, and only now is beginning to reveal itself in its true purity.
But nowhere in the world has slavery been so thoroughly engrafted and so widely disseminated as in Africa; the earliest mariners who circumnavigated its coasts found a system of kidnapping everywhere established on a firm basis, and extending in its business relations far into the interior of the continent; the idea arose how advantageously the owners of land in the distant East might cull the costly products of their soil by the hands of slaves; and the kernel of a single plant, the coffee berry, became the means of uniting the remotest lands, and had the effect of throwinga large portion of the human race into subjection to their fellows, whilst Christian nations became the patrons and the propagators of the disgraceful traffic. It has therefore happened in the natural course of things that philanthropists have first applied their energies to the slave-trade in the West; the East has still to tarry for an enlightenment which is destined in the fulness of time to gladden a future chapter of history.
ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.
Half the task is now accomplished. Two great nations have speeded on the work: England in theory, North America in practice. For scores of years the ships of Great Britain cruised about the shores of Africa for the purpose of stopping the export of slaves; but although the outlay was great, the result was small; nevertheless a path was broken for the realisation of the ideas of Wilberforce, for whose noble endeavours the best sympathies of all nations had so long and ardently been enlisted. Finally the civil war broke out in North America, and great and glorious as had been the services rendered by England in the cause of humanity, honour greater and more glorious still was won in long and bloody strife by her brethren beyond the ocean. Now the black man has free footing in all parts of the Western Continent; and in the Eastern, the seed of liberty, sown scarcely ten years back, is already bearing its first fruit on African soil; the export of slaves from the coasts of Guinea, which in the middle of the last century amounted to 100,000 annually, exists no longer, and the shores are enlivened by populous towns, the inhabitants of which are engaged in peaceful traffic; all the work of a few years, and all owing to the happy termination of the American civil war.[92]
Our age is now anxiously awaiting the fulfilment of the great work, but the other half of the task has still to be accomplished; the dark cloud of barbarism still lowers over the innermost regions of Africa, and Egypt, the oldest and richest land of the historical world, has its mission to perform. A great revolution has already begun, and although at present it affects only the surface, there is scarcely any reason to doubt that progress, alike spiritual and humane, will ultimately claim the victory. But the task is gigantic, and no one can be more sensible of this than the traveller who has lingered at any of the sources of the slave-trade. One point there is in which all are unanimous—that from Islamism no help can be expected, and that with Islamism no compact can be made. The second Sura of the Koran begins with the prescription: “To open the way of God, slay all those who would slay you; but be not yourselves the first to commence hostilities, for God loves not sinners; slay them wherever you meet them; drive them away from the spot from which they would drive you, for temptation is worse than a death-blow.” Islamism, the child of the deserts, has everywhere spread desolation, and wherever it has penetrated, deserts have arisen bleak and bare as the rocks of Nubia and Arabia, and under its influence every nation from Morocco to the Isles of Sunda has congealed into a homogeneous mass; inexorably it brings all to one level, remorselessly obliterating all traces of nationality or race.
That Islamism is capable of progress is merely a supposition that has been hatched up from books, and has no foundation; there is likewise nothing to prove that it has fallen to decay; its condition appears to be that of one perpetual childhood. Its votaries are like the germs of vegetation that slumber in the sands of desert valleys; a drop of rain, a mere nothing, may call them to a transitory life; the plants bear their flowers, produce their fruit, then die away, and all becomes once more buried in a long deep sleep.
EGYPTIAN APATHY.
Another question then arises as to whether Mohammedans might be roused to civilisation by adopting Christianity. If a European residing in Egypt were asked whether it would be possible for the people to adopt European customs without forsaking Mohammedanism, he would at once answer in the negative; and if he were further pressed with the inquiry whether there was any prospect of the religion ever changing, his reply would again be that there is not the remotest hope of such an issue. And this opinion would seem to be borne out by what has been experienced in Algiers, where the gentle administration of the French Government, with its “Bureaux Arabes,” has always prevented the colony from becoming rich and populated by Europeans. The European costume is the only one of our civilised institutions that has hitherto been adopted in Egypt, but underneath this external garb there still lurks the old feeling of hatred for the Franks, a feeling which is perceptible only to those who penetrate into their domestic circles.
But whether Egyptian officials wear an Oriental dress or a European dress, their ideas about slavery and the slave-trade are stereotyped; it is the fashion in good society to have a house full of slaves, and their presence is considered indispensable. Now if a man were to keep two, or even three, properly paid servants, and see that they did their duty with order and punctuality, he would be making some advance in civilisation: but now, what is the impression on entering the homes of the rich Egyptians? There, comfortably settled on the divan, sits the master of the house, silent and contemplative, a man of peace and quietness; nothing seems to disturb his composure; all the nobler passions are quite alien to his nature; hunting and fishing, riding and boating, are quite unknown to him, and he never puts himself to the trouble of taking a walk. If he is thirsty, he has only to raise his hand and say, “Ya, wolled” (here, fellow!) and in an instant his slave hands him a glass of water; orif he wants to smoke or to go to sleep, it is “Ya, wolled” just the same: everything is done for him, and he does not stir an inch to help himself. Now supposing some fine day all these “wolleds” were to take themselves off, what would befall these fine gentlemen on their divans, and where would they turn for all the trifling comforts of their daily life? Their sluggish nature would be invaded by a feeling of disquietude that they had never felt before; they must either die or become new creatures. This description, which applies to every rank of life, is only a reflection of the lethargic apathy that prevails in every Oriental State; an inference necessarily follows thatof equal importance with the abolition of slavery is the dawn of a new life in the East. If this regeneration is impossible, then slavery is a permanent necessity.
The kind treatment of slaves, and the comfortable lot that they enjoy, in comparison to the hardships of their rude, rough homes, are pleas that have often been urged in extenuation of slavery in the East. It is certainly true that the contrast in slave-labour is very great, and whilst Europeans have looked upon their slaves as little better than useful domestic animals, the Oriental slave is a mere object of luxury. Only a small proportion of the slaves that are brought annually from the interior are employed in field-labour in Egypt, though rather more frequently in the Nubian provinces. The European, although he deprived the negro of his ordinary rights, still compelled him to become a useful member of society; the Oriental allows him a portion of his rights, but trains him up to general incapacity; the occupations of filling pipes, handing water, boiling coffee, and holding a salver, are not employments worthy of a man. Slavery in the East, in spite of its good living and fine clothes, is not at the best a very enviable position; but such as it is, it is purchased by these poor creatures at a heavy price; they have to submit to a long and painfuljourney across the deserts; they have to suffer the extremest hunger and fatigue, and to be exposed to the contagion of disorders, such as their fresh blood, pure with the simplicity of a life of nature, is especially liable to imbibe, and altogether they are doomed to be subject to hardships so severe as to decimate their ranks.
DEPOPULATION OF AFRICA.
But the worst feature in the case is the depopulation of Africa. I have myself seen whole tracts of country in Dar Ferteet turned into barren, uninhabited wildernesses, simply because all the young girls have been carried out of the country. Turks and Arabs will urge that they are only drawing off useless blood, that if these people are allowed to increase and multiply, they will only turn round and kill one another. But the truth is far otherwise. The time has come when the vast continent of Africa can no longer be dispensed with; it must take its share in the commerce of the world, and this cannot be effected until slavery is abolished. Sooner than the natives should be exterminated, I would see all Turks, Arabs, or whatever else these apathetic nations may be called, vanish from the face of the earth; they are only occupying the place of their betters; and negroes, if they only work, are their betters.
I travelled in the Nile countries from 1863 to 1866, and again from 1868 to 1871; on my first journey I visited all the great markets of the slave-trade, Cairo, Siout, Djiddah, Suakin, Matamma in Gallabat, Khartoom, and Berber; in my second I reached its sources in the lands to the south of Darfoor and Kordofan. Throughout my wanderings I was ever puzzling out schemes for setting bounds to this inhuman traffic. The traveller in these lands is kept in one perpetual state of irritation by what he sees; on every road he meets long troops of slaves; on the sea and round the coasts he comes in contact with Arab boats crammed full of the same miserable creatures.
Whilst exploring the coasts of Nubia and Egypt in 1864and 1865, I spent eight months on the Red Sea. The slave-trade there was then in a flourishing condition, but the accounts[93]of what I saw attracted no more attention than the complaints made by my predecessors. The consuls in Djiddah and other ports on the Red Sea were afraid to take any measures that were not sanctioned by European policy, and consequently Arabs were allowed to carry on that which amongst Spaniards and Portuguese would have been considered piracy. Not a man-of-war was to be seen cruising on the water, and yet one single gunboat would have sufficed to keep a check upon the intercourse between the opposite coasts, and to make the slave-trade an impossibility. A change has now been effected, and all the Powers that are interested in the matter have done their utmost to remedy the evil; but even on the Red Sea there still remains much to be done, and even now there are far too many secret landing-places and loopholes which escape the vigilance of the authorities.
Many a time, under the consciousness that alone I was utterly powerless as a vindicator of humanity, I have restrained myself from the temptation to rescue slaves with my own hands. Once, between Khartoom and Berber, a lot of slaves was being brought from Kordofan, and I cut in two the leather thongs that bound them to their sheyba; but an ugly squabble was all that resulted from my interference. At other times I have vehemently remonstrated with the slave-dealers, when I have been a witness of any cruelty in their treatment of their property; but all to no purpose. It may therefore be imagined that a traveller in his fury and disgust will be led to devise all manner of schemes for eradicating the system, and although, when weighed in a calmer frame of mind, many of his plans will seem chimericaland even impracticable, yet it may be that their very apparent impracticability at least proves the gravity of the situation, and shows the inadequacy of the present means of suppression. But such as my schemes were, I will venture to indicate them here. They contain no shifts, no compromise, no expectation of better times, no dependence on Egyptian officials, not even a hope of assistance from the Viceroy, who, however good his intentions may be, has not the power to do much. A talent for organisation is not sufficient to rouse whole nations from their apathy; no small hero can do the work, but it would require a powerful reformer like Peter the Great, and a people like the Russians, or the Japanese of the present day, who would easily imbibe the ideas of the West. I beg therefore to submit the following assuggestions towards the suppression of the slave-trade; they embody at least the ideas of one who has been a witness of what transpires at the sources of the slave-trade in Central Africa.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPRESSING THE SLAVE-TRADE.
1. To place the country under an Administration formed on the European principle, and to appoint Europeans to fill the highest posts; the French have officials who understand the language, and the English have their experience to show them how Mohammedans may be pressed into the service of a well-regulated State. This plan would please the fellaheen of Egypt, whilst the rest of the people would be indifferent to it, as long as they were not severely taxed.[94]
2. To appoint commissioners of slaves, who should travel about the provinces, and keep watch upon all the highways of the slave-trade; they should be invested with the fullest authority, and rank above the local officials. They should have the power of arresting and imprisoning every slavedealer,of sequestrating his property, and of equipping expeditions for the purpose of conveying the rescued slaves back to their own homes. As these expeditions would have to traverse hostile territory, they must necessarily be armed, and the commissioners of course should be perfectly incorruptible, inasmuch as they would be constantly exposed to the temptation of accepting bribes.
3. To place the negro-countries that suffer most from the slave-trade under the protection of European Governments, by founding States expressly for their defence. The splitting up of African nations into small States has ever been the main hindrance to the introduction of civilisation amongst them; it is only large Powers, and such as are competent to organise themselves, that offer a likely foundation for the establishment of any thriving commerce or traffic.
4. To introduce a Chinese immigration into the Mohammedan countries of Africa, of which the population gives little attention to agriculture. The four millions of Egyptians who are available for agricultural occupations are insufficient to do justice to the richness of the soil; but Chinese labourers would thrive well in Nubia, and would certainly, in the course of a few years, make the culture of the land highly remunerative.
Under existing circumstances there can be no amelioration in the condition of the Egyptian States, until the slave-trade is not only held in check at its sources, but also stopped at its outlets. This can only be effected by the rich people resigning their slaves and replacing them by paid servants; the change would doubtless involve many in a large expense, for they would be still obliged to maintain their former slaves, the greater part of whom would refuse to leave their masters; still a great step would be gained if a law could be passed to give all slaves the right of demanding payment for their services; such a measurewould have the effect of putting a limit to the number of slaves that are kept, and by forcing the masters to demand more work from them, would have a tendency to rouse the Orientals from their humdrum ways. As long as a man retains his slaves as such, there is nothing to prevent him from making fresh purchases, so that any other measure than that which I have described would be so much trouble lost.
THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.
That there is any assistance to be expected, under the circumstances, from the Khedive, is quite a delusion. It is commonly supposed that the ruler of Egypt is a despot of the purest water; this, however, is a great mistake. In many respects the Egyptian Government is extremely mild; criminals and officials who have been remiss in their duty are rarely severely punished, and the only delinquency that it will not overlook is the refusal to pay taxes; and even here matters would not be so bad, if it were not that the disorderly administration involves the officials in making encroaching demands. The Viceroy has little power over the higher authorities, who manage to sneak behind the Crescent of Stamboul; he is no more than a Viceroy; the high-sounding Persian title of Khedive which he assumes is in reality no more than a title. He can only issue his orders, and then all boats that come down the White Nile are confiscated; and in Khartoom especially, where it is good policy to make a stir in the eyes of the European residents, all kinds of repressive measures are proposed; in displaying their zeal in the cause, the authorities often commit acts of the greatest injustice, and Mohammedans sometimes find their wives and families sequestrated as slaves, merely because they happen to be black. Such proceedings afford a fine opportunity for the subordinate officials to make a harvest out of the injured people by extorting ransom-money, and by making other extortionate demands. I can myself bear witness that several of myservants were deprived of their wives and children and put into chains, and I had to write to the Minister, and accompany the people to Cairo myself, before I could get justice done to them and their rights restored; and all this was only for the purpose of throwing dust in my eyes and inducing me to report upon the wonderful energy displayed by the local government in Khartoom.
But meantime, the caravans find their way just the same as ever through Darfoor and Kordofan to Dongola and Siout, and still they are brought from Abyssinia through Gallabat to the Red Sea, and no one sees them but the traveller. In Kordofan, where there is a resident Egyptian Governor, the trade is truly enormous, and there is now as well the slave-trade from Darfoor. Siout, the common termination of the roads, is the only place where this trade can be cut off, and that could only be effected by the heaviest sacrifices for the commerce of Egypt. The conquest of Darfoor by the Egyptians would consequently be a great step in advance; but I most emphatically protest against Ismail Pasha being allowed to send Turkish troops into the heathen negro-countries, for it may literally be said that “where they have been, no grass will grow.” The kindest thing that the enlightened ruler of Egypt can do for these lands is to leave them alone; they are not productive, and if they were, they are too far from the navigable rivers to make any of their products that are in less demand than ivory of any mercantile value.
FOOTNOTES:[82]The Baggara butter is of an excellent quality. It is packed in wicker baskets, which are made impervious to damp by being smeared inside with the pulp of the balanites.[83]The Fakis who come from Darfoor are probably the only people in the world who still practise the abominable business of emasculating boys, and eunuchs are rapidly becoming more rare.[84]These belong to the tribes of the Sehre, the Nduggoo, the Fakkerey, the Baddoh, and the Tabboh, &c.[85]A rottoli is equal to 15oz.13drs.avoirdupois. Thirty rottoli is here a somewhat imaginary weight, being not worth more than eighteen Egyptian rottoli.[86]The portrait on the following page is that of a Babuckur slave bound by a leather rope. Her piteous expression of countenance shows her distress at her condition.[87]The accompanying illustration represents one of the daily scenes in my travelling life, and may serve to give an idea how slavery degrades a woman almost to a level with the brutes. A newly-captured slave, with the heavy yoke of the sheyba fastened to her neck, has been sentenced to work at the murhaga, whilst a boy, who has been placed as a spy to keep a constant watch upon her conduct, holds up the yoke in order that it should not interfere with the freedom of her movements.[88]I should point out that the total number of the soldiers maintained in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district by the twelve great mercantile firms in Khartoom amounts to 11,000. I have here given the lowest computation.[89]This word must not be confounded with Nubian, a word which has come down from antiquity, and which, like the term Egypt, did not originally apply to the inhabitants of the Nile Valley.[90]If this account of slave capture in the time of Mehemet Ali should appear incredible, I would refer the reader to a book that contains the narrative of an eye-witness: Pallme, ‘Travels in Kordofan,’ London, 1844.[91]Under the most Christian-minded Popes of the eighth century, slave-markets and the slave-trade flourished unhindered, not only in Italy, but in Rome itself.[92]I would refer especially to the district of Lagos, where the advance has been rapid to a degree hitherto unheard of in the history of the continent. In 1871 the entire commerce of the British possessions on the West Coast amounted to 2,556,000l., and may at the present time be estimated at 3,000,000 sterling.[93]Detailed accounts appear in the‘Zeitschrift für Allgem. Erdkunde.’Vol. xviii.1866.[94]The long possession of almost sovereign rights enjoyed by European consuls in the East has given the people a confidence in their sense of justice, and would prevent them from fearing any encroachment on their religious opinions.
[82]The Baggara butter is of an excellent quality. It is packed in wicker baskets, which are made impervious to damp by being smeared inside with the pulp of the balanites.
[83]The Fakis who come from Darfoor are probably the only people in the world who still practise the abominable business of emasculating boys, and eunuchs are rapidly becoming more rare.
[84]These belong to the tribes of the Sehre, the Nduggoo, the Fakkerey, the Baddoh, and the Tabboh, &c.
[85]A rottoli is equal to 15oz.13drs.avoirdupois. Thirty rottoli is here a somewhat imaginary weight, being not worth more than eighteen Egyptian rottoli.
[86]The portrait on the following page is that of a Babuckur slave bound by a leather rope. Her piteous expression of countenance shows her distress at her condition.
[87]The accompanying illustration represents one of the daily scenes in my travelling life, and may serve to give an idea how slavery degrades a woman almost to a level with the brutes. A newly-captured slave, with the heavy yoke of the sheyba fastened to her neck, has been sentenced to work at the murhaga, whilst a boy, who has been placed as a spy to keep a constant watch upon her conduct, holds up the yoke in order that it should not interfere with the freedom of her movements.
[88]I should point out that the total number of the soldiers maintained in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district by the twelve great mercantile firms in Khartoom amounts to 11,000. I have here given the lowest computation.
[89]This word must not be confounded with Nubian, a word which has come down from antiquity, and which, like the term Egypt, did not originally apply to the inhabitants of the Nile Valley.
[90]If this account of slave capture in the time of Mehemet Ali should appear incredible, I would refer the reader to a book that contains the narrative of an eye-witness: Pallme, ‘Travels in Kordofan,’ London, 1844.
[91]Under the most Christian-minded Popes of the eighth century, slave-markets and the slave-trade flourished unhindered, not only in Italy, but in Rome itself.
[92]I would refer especially to the district of Lagos, where the advance has been rapid to a degree hitherto unheard of in the history of the continent. In 1871 the entire commerce of the British possessions on the West Coast amounted to 2,556,000l., and may at the present time be estimated at 3,000,000 sterling.
[93]Detailed accounts appear in the‘Zeitschrift für Allgem. Erdkunde.’Vol. xviii.1866.
[94]The long possession of almost sovereign rights enjoyed by European consuls in the East has given the people a confidence in their sense of justice, and would prevent them from fearing any encroachment on their religious opinions.