Katherine II.’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.
Probably the 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 practical supervision 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.
[Sidenote: 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 in all 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 (50_l_.) The return journey is
always made on foot, and the unfortunate slaves have to carry all the
articles necessary for travelling.
[Sidenote: 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 purchased like 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.
[Sidenote: 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 they do 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.
[Sidenote: 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 (1_l._ 10_s._); 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 as _objets 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 the ordinary 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Illustration: 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 Seribas
through 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 possesses at least one of these
juvenille armour-bearers. When they get older they are included in my
next category.
[Sidenote: 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 myself
received 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 upon as 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Illustration: 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 murhaga in
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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS.]
_Proportions of the_ POPULATION _in the District of the_ KHARTOOMERS’
SERIBAS _on the Bahr-el-Ghazal_.
CONSUMERS.
Nubian soldiers, recruited in Khartoom and consisting of
natives of Dongola, Sheygieh, Sennaar, Kordofan, various
Bedouins, &c. 5,000
Black slave troops (Farookh)[88] 5,000
Fellow-boarders with the Nubian idlers from the Soudan,
living here in order to procure corn cheaply and without
any trouble 1,000
Gellahbas settled in Dar Ferteet, and agents in the Seribas,
Fakis, &c. 2,000
Itinerant Gellahbas, who enter the country in the winter 2,000
Private slaves belonging to the colonised Mohammedan
population 40,000
------
TOTAL 55,000
------
PRODUCERS.
Bongo 100,000
Mittoo (including Loubah, Madi, &c.) 30,000
Dyoor 10,000
Golo 6,000
Sehre 4,000
Kredy 20,000
Small tribes of natives belonging to the immediate environs
of the Seribas, such as the Dembo, Bimberry, Manga, &c. 20,000
-------
TOTAL 190,000
-------
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 geographical _terra
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.
[Sidenote: 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_) _viâ_ Shoa to Zeyla; (_b_)
_viâ_ Godyam through Abyssinia to Matamma and Suakin, or to Massowa
and smaller unguarded coast towns; (_c_) _viâ_ Fazogl to Sennaar,
where the largest market is not in, but above Khartoom, in a place
called Mussalemia; 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.
[Sidenote: 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, large numbers 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 Khartoom _viâ_ El-Obeïd; (_b_) from Aboo Harras eastwards
to Mussalemia through Sennaar; (_c_) from Aboo Harras across the
Begudah steppes to Dongola _viâ_ El-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 throwing a 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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; or if 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 that _of 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 painful journey
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.
[Sidenote: 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 1864 and 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 chimerical and 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 as _suggestions 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.
[Sidenote: 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 measure would 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.
[Sidenote: 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
my servants 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 15 oz. 13 drs. 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 2,556,000_l._, 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.