ON SLAVERY.
You must now, dear Reader, bear with, or skip, a chapter on Slavery,
upon which Richard was very strong.
CAPTAIN BURTON'S REPORTS TO LORD GRANVILLE ON ANTI-SLAVERY.
_Letter No._ 1.
"Cairo, April 27th, 1880.
"MY LORD,
[Sidenote: _Richard's Three Letters to Lord Granville_.]
"I have the honour to report that during a late excursion to the
Natron Lakes, lying north-north-west of Cairo, I came upon the
track of a small but vigorous branch of slave traffic which is,
I understand, carried on with much suffering to the victims. My
companion, Professor William Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen, now
returning to England, can give oral information on the subject; whilst
Colonel Gordon, late Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces,
was perfectly successful in closing to slave-traders the Main Trunk
Line--_viâ_ the Nile itself--he could not but throw the transit into
two branches, the one east, the other west of the river. On April 11th
we engaged a guide of the village of Abu-Rawásh, near the northernmost
pyramid, which is the Nilotic terminus of the journey. This man, El
Haji Musà, was reticent on the subject of _rakik_ (slaves); not so
his son, Abdullah. The traffic was the conversation of the village;
and from the youth we learnt that our only risk in a desert march
would be that of meeting Arabs driving slaves. The village _Ghafèr_ (a
watchman), Mohammed el Zayyàt, is said to assist in smuggling the new
arrivals, who are dressed like town slaves; and the Octroi authorities
can hardly be ignorant of a traffic which gives such large gains.
Whether the Pyramid Arabs are concerned in it or not, I have not as
yet ascertained at the Coptic Convent of the Mar-Makarios. I could
obtain no information except that the transit had been once active and
was now closed. But a second guide, Abd el Alàh, of the Bedawi tribe
Beni Salamah, gave a very different account, which confirmed that of
the youth Abdullah. The slaves are driven from the land popularly
called Wadar, and by the people Bargo, through the line of oases lying
west of the Nile. The season is winter, when water holes abound; the
summer heats effectually stop it. At Siwah, the Oasis of Amaun, some
eighteen marches from Cairo, the _rakik_ are driven to the Natron
Lakes. Men, women, children, and babies carried on the shoulder, if
they refuse to walk are beaten, and lastly are tied on camels' backs.
At the Birket el Birdi, the easternmost of the Natron Lakes, we were
shown the sweet-water pools from which they drink, and the places
where they are kept to rest and recruit for several days, before being
driven into the capital. Finally, in the Syrian convent, I heard
that the last convoy of 1880 had passed by their monastery in March.
Nothing would be easier than to put a stop to this proceeding, and if
your Lordship should wish to know what measures I should propose, I am
at all times ready to submit them to your approval.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
"Your obedient servant,
"RICHARD F. BURTON."
_Letter No._ 2.
"Cairo, May 3rd, 1880.
"MY LORD,
"In continuation of my letter, separate--Cairo, April 27, on the
revival of slavery throughout Egypt, I have the honour to add the
following details. Three villages are connected with the Wadái Sywal
slave-trade, namely, Kardási, Abu Rawásh, and the so-called 'Pyramid
Arabs.' Of the latter, I heard from the Chevalier de Kremer and H. E.
Yacoub Artim Bey, who, two years ago, convicted them of complicity
about Kardási.... I was informed by Dr. Grant, of Cairo, and Mr.
Hayes, of Alexandria, who, some years ago, came upon the caves where
the slaves had to be lodged. The slave importation in Egypt has now
assumed an importance which threatens to become scandalous. I need
not enter into the polities of this present Egyptian Government, but
it is essentially retrograde and strongly opposed to all reforms,
especially to the employment of European officials. It has established
slave bureaux at Cairo, Alexandria, Santa, and Es Siegrét, but not
at the principal place, Assouan (Syene).... These employés send in
mere blinds by way of reports; they have no general head, and being
under-paid, they cannot refuse the larger inducements offered by the
slave-dealers. The scandal which happened at Es-Siyút on April 20, 23,
has doubtless been reported to your Lordship, and has found its way
into the papers. Of some thousand head, only sixty-seven (thirty-nine
girls and twenty-eight boys) were captured; the hundred and fifty
slave merchants, with their camels, had the audacity to march upon a
point which is not only a slave bureau but a railway station, with
telegraph, etc.... Comment on such a proceeding is useless.... When
Colonel Gordon, R.E., was compelled to leave Egypt by the retrograde
and anti-European party now in office, his employé, Signor Gessi,
hung, they say, eight slave-dealers. It was at once reported from
Cairo to the Soudan, and throughout the slavery region, that Colonel
Gordon had been dismissed for undue severity, and such a report was
virtually an exhortation to reopen the slave-trade by destroying the
leaders, who commanded bodies composed of from three to four thousand
armed men.... All foresaw that his departure would be followed by its
reorganization, and yet no steps were taken by the present Egyptian
Ministry--they sent up a Governor-General, a certain Rauf Pasha,
a Berberin, known only by his cruelties in Harar, where the ruler
died under most suspicious circumstances. The Indian trade, though
scotched, is by no means killed. Money will be easily raised at
Khartum, Cairo, Alexandria, and men will be readily found. The best
proof is the scandalous affair of Es-Siyút. I have also heard of a
caravan of three hundred head being seen at Karaski on the Nile.
Meanwhile the slave-traders, too weak to invade the country, pitch
their camp upon the borders of Dar-Wardác and other slaving centres.
They buy the captives offered to them, and march them through the
oases, and along the Nile, at a part where there are no guards. From
the terminus depôt Siwah, slaves are sent to Cairo and Alexandria,
and, when these lines are dangerous, through the Oases of Augila to
Tunis and Tripoli. There would be no difficulty in controlling this
trade. In reducing hundreds to tens, and tens to units, the necessary
procedure cannot be taken by a retrograde and a remiss Egyptian
Ministry, or by a staff of under-paid employés.
"I have the honour to be.
"Your Lordship's obedient servant,
"R. F. BURTON."
_Letter No._ 3.
"Consulate, Trieste, May 11th, 1880.
"MY LORD,
"In my two letters, separate--Cairo, April 27th, and Cairo, May
3rd, which forwarded details of the slave-trade revival in Egypt
and of the Wadái-Siwah line, which has temporarily taken the place
of the Soudan trade, I neglected to mention another branch--which
would require control, chiefly through the Red Sea. This is the
Abyssinian, which includes the Galla tribes. The market resembles
the Caucasian, especially the Circassian now extinct, in so far as
parents sell their children, and relatives their kin. It is a small
but constant supply of a high-priced article equally prized in Arabia
and in Egypt. It required no apparatus, no expenditure of men and
money, and consequently, to suppress it, will be a work of time and
well-directed energy. During my return voyage from Alexandria, I met
an old acquaintance (Dr. Geo. Reinisch), Professor of Egyptology to
the University of Vienna, who with his wife had been living for some
months in Abyssinia and the Upper Nile; he gave me all manner of
details, and declared that the slave traffic is assuming an importance
which it never had in the days of Ismail, the ex-Khedive. His
account of it, indeed, is anything but creditable to the present
administration of Egypt. Under Nubar Pasha or Sheríf Pasha, instant
measures would be taken to abate the scandal, but the actual Ministry
is too Moslem and too retrograde to interfere with the so-called
patriarchal institution.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
"Your obedient servant,
"R. F. BURTON."
[Illustration: Richard F. Burton. In 1880.]
He wrote, besides, a private letter to Lord Granville as follows:--
"The Ministry under Riaz Pasha is doing all it can to abolish Colonel
Gordon's fine anti-slavery work for the last six years. They have
sent up a certain Rauf Pasha, almost a black, who will have no weight
whatever; and the Red Sea will be in a worse state than ever unless
some measures are soon taken; and slave-trade is speedily reviving
in the Soudan and the Red Sea. The Ministry wishes to drive out all
foreigners, and this makes times in Egypt harder than ever.
[Sidenote: _His Application to be made Slave Commissioner_.]
"I would like to have a temporary appointment in the Red Sea as Slave
Commissioner. I want a salary of from £1600 to £2000 a year (£1600
would do if allowed to keep Trieste on half-pay, £350 per annum),
the use of a gun-boat, and a roving commission, independent of the
Consul-General of Egypt, but to act in concert with a Consul (such as
young Wylde) appointed to the Soudan. It is a thing that has long been
talked about as a great want in the Red Sea, _if slavery is really to
be exterminated_, and Gordon's splendid work to be carried out on the
coast. Gordon Pasha has long wished to recommend _me_ for this work.
As this last appointment would only be _temporary_--say for a couple
of years--I would like to be allowed to keep Trieste to fall back upon
when my work is done, and as a home for my wife when she cannot be
with me. Other men are allowed to retain their Indian appointments,
and still to take temporary service in Egypt: for this there are
several precedents. Mr. Brock, the Vice-Consul at Trieste, who is
thoroughly reliable, would act for me on half-pay, as he has done the
last forty years. I guarantee that, placed in such a position, in _two
years'_ time the Red Sea _shall be as clear of slaves as if slavery
had never existed_.
"RICHARD F. BURTON."
"HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SLAVE SCANDAL IN EGYPT.
"The systematic and official revival of the import slave-trade in
Egypt was the necessary consequence of Colonel Gordon's compulsory
retirement. The merest sketch of the measures adopted by that
energetic English 'Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces' would
occupy the whole of this paper. Suffice it to say that, when matters
came to a crisis, he attacked the well-armed and well-organized forces
of the slave-dealers, sometimes numbering three to four thousand
musketeers; and during two years' fighting he defeated them in more
than one pitched battle. Thus he stopped the slave-hunting at its
head-quarters, with its train of death and desolation. Had he remained
in 'Black-land' the moral sense of England would not have been
outraged by the horrors brought to light so soon after his departure.
But he had routed the slaver without abolishing the slave, nor were
his measures calculated to set the latter free.
"Colonel Gordon's work, however, was too 'thorough;' moreover, his
strict and honourable rule allowed no plundering and embezzling of
'parasitical Pashas, foreigners in Egypt.' The Khedive (Ismail I.) by
a stout-hearted _coup d'état_ had appointed and had unhesitatingly
supported his great lieutenant. The Prince's dethronement was a
signal for the downfall of the English Governor-General. The former
was succeeded (June 26, 1879) by his eldest son, Taufik Pasha, who,
however upright and public spirited, was young and inexperienced;
and he had nothing to do but to place the helm of State affairs
in the hands of a ministry. The President of the Council was Riaz
Pasha el-Wázán, whose cognomen shows that he was not of Moslem
origin. Rising, as Pashas usually rise, from the very lowest class,
he determined to conciliate and gratify his new co-religionists by
a retrograde and destructive, an anti-European and pro-Mohammedan
policy. He went as far in this matter as he safely could; he gagged
the Press in Egypt, and he addressed to the Consulate-General of the
United States a complaint that the missionaries were attempting to
proselytize Moslems. This Ministry ended (mid-February, 1881) with
causing a military _émeute_ at Cairo, a thing absolutely unknown to
the annals of the Capital. The movement is ominous, and it will injure
the City in the estimation of the winter visitors, even more than did
the Dengue-fever bred by its filth.
"Again we must rapidly pass over the nicely graduated slights and
insults by which Riaz Pasha compelled Colonel Gordon to send in his
resignation early in 1880. But the desired effect was attained.
Popular rumour pointed out Colonel Mason, an American staff officer,
as Colonel Gordon's successor. This, however, was not to be; _L'Egitto
farà da se_, Egypt for the Egyptians, _i.e._ Turks. The Kafir and the
Giaour must be prepared to depart when no longer required; and Riaz
Pasha made no secret of his hopes to see them depart without delay.
"All men of experience in Egypt and elsewhere foresaw what would
result from Colonel Gordon's compulsory retirement. Under Sherif Pasha
or Nubar Pasha measures would have been taken to prevent the revival
of the traffic. The old serpent had been scotched, not slain. Money
was easily raised at Khartum, Cairo, and Alexandria. The Riaz Ministry
contented itself with spreading a report throughout their unhappy
hunting-grounds that Colonel Gordon had been dismissed for undue
severity to the Jellabs (slave dealers); and such a rumour acting upon
the reaction, the rebound was virtually an exhortation to reopen the
trade. A successor was soon found in a man of colour, Rauf Bey (now
Rauf Pasha), an officer of Berberine or negro origin, known, but not
favourably, for his conquest of Somali-land and for strangling the old
Amir of Harar after surrender. He was mentioned by Sir Samuel Baker
('Ismailïa,' i. 286, Appendix, 'Raouf Bey') as the bosom friend of the
monster Abu Sa'úd. The new Governor-General of the Soudan acted as all
knew he would; and his seal presently appeared upon the Government
passage-tickets on board slave-transporting steamers (_Anti-Slavery
Reporter_, November, 1880). These papers were given only to be retaken
when no longer wanted as 'blinds.'
"Colonel Gordon's orders were cancelled, and the import slave-trade
was energetically revived by the Riaz Ministry. The scandalous scenes
in the Desert, on the Nile, and even in the suburbs of Cairo, were
known to Europeans as well as to natives. When every Consulate-General
received the exactest details, these could hardly have escaped the
knowledge of her Britannic Majesty's representative. But, as Colonel
Gordon says, 'to the generality of our officials all is more or less
rose-coloured.' Whether the cause was a commendable desire not to
embarrass a struggling and indebted Government, or a laudable ambition
to report what sounds pleasant to authoritative ears, the effect
undoubtedly was that the English Government and the public were left
in utter ignorance of the scandalous revival. It is time for the world
to know how the crime was brought to light. 'Honour to whom honour is
due' does not appear to be the rule of the Anti-Slavery Society.[1]
"On April 10, 1880, Professor W. Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen, and
I, set out together with the view of visiting the Coptic convents
in the Desert about the Natron Lakes to the north-west of Cairo.
We were detained three days at the village of Abu-Rawásh, near the
northernmost pyramid of that name, by a robbery which called for the
intervention of the police. The time was not wasted. The traffic of
_rakik_ (chattels) was the common topic of conversation amongst the
peasants; and the settlement proved to be one of the Nilotic termini
of the transport line. We subsequently ascertained that the so-called
'Pyramid Arabs' and the neighbouring hamlets, especially Kardási,
were also connected with it. Kardási, indeed, had been convicted of
complicity two years ago by Yacoub Artin Bey. Of course the Octroi
employés were well acquainted with a traffic so lucrative.
"The guide El-Haji Musá, engaged at Abu-Rawásh, succeeded in missing
the way, and in nearly losing himself, by his desire to prevent the
two Englishmen meeting a slave Caravan which was then expected. At
the Coptic convent of Már Makárius no information was forthcoming
from the monks, except that the once active traffic had been closed.
But a second guide, Abd el-Aláh, of the Benú Salamáh Bedouins, gave
a very different account, which was confirmed by others. The slaves
are driven from the large region, popularly called Dar Wadái, and,
by the inhabitants, Bargo. The season is the rainy winter, when the
water-holes are full; the summer heats effectually end it. At Siwah
(the Oasis of Ammon), some eighteen marches from Cairo, the chattels
are driven to the Natron Lakes; men, women, children, and babes in
arms forming regular caravans. If the adults refuse to walk, they are
beaten; and, as a last resource in sickness, they are tied on camels'
backs. At the Birket el Birdi, the easternmost of the Natron Lakes,
we were shown the sweet-water pools from which the slave-gangs drink,
and the places where they are halted to rest and recruit before being
smuggled one by one into the capital. Finally, we heard at the Syrian
convent that the last convoy of 1880 had passed in March.
"On returning to Cairo (April 21) I met Dr. Leo Reinisch, Professor of
Egyptology to the University of Vienna, who, with his wife, had been
living for some months in Abyssinia, and on the Upper Nile. He gave
all manner of details, and detailed that the slave-trade was assuming
an importance which it never had in the days of the ex-Khedive. His
account of it, indeed, was disgraceful to the Riaz Ministry. The
slave-traders, no longer organized to invade the country, pitch their
zaribahs, or armed camps, upon the borders of the man-hunting lands,
Dar-Fur, Kordofan, the Niam-Niam country; Monbuttoland, and the whole
valley of the Bahr el Ghazál. In these lands, nominally Egyptian, they
buy the kidnapped negroes offered to them, and march them through
the oasis, and along the Nile at parts where there are no guards.
From the terminus of the main depôt, Siwah, the victims are sent to
Cairo and Alexandria, and when these lines are dangerous, they are
passed through the Oases of Augila to Tunis and Tripoli. Besides the
Soudan, there is another branch, the Habesh or Abyssinian, which
includes the Galla tribes and the peoples of Shoa, Gouga, Gurágue, and
Godjam, whose chief Ras Adal has made his name infamous. The Habesh
market does not include the 'Abid' (negroes proper) from the South
and West of Khartum. At Zayla the notorious Governor, Abu Beker,[2]
and his fifty sons (the former now charged with the foul murder of M.
Lucereau), work the Galla mine to great profit. This trade resembles
the _almost_ extinct Caucasian, especially the Circassian, so far
that parents and relatives sell their children and kinsfolk. It is a
small but constant supply of a high-priced article, equally in demand
throughout Arabia and Egypt. It requires no apparatus, no outlay of
men and money; and, consequently, to suppress it by closing the main
artery, the Red Sea, may be pronounced practically impossible. It can
only be destroyed by abolishing the demand.
"Before leaving Cairo, Professor Smith, in a private conversation,
recounted to her Majesty's Consul-General, who had never heard of
the revival, what he had seen and gathered during his excursion. I
reported the new tactics, of which the Foreign Office could know
nothing, in three official letters to her Majesty's Government
(April 27, May 3 and 11). I proposed what I then considered easy
and efficacious means of suppressing this disgrace to humanity. The
unmanageable duplicity shown in the after proceedings of the Riaz
Ministry, and the adoption of plausible measures which serve only to
mislead the public, have, since that time, compelled me to change
my views, to expect nothing from compromise and to advocate whole
measures.
"Meanwhile the revival throve. In March, 1880, a large slave Caravan
had been marched down the Nile; this successful speculation emboldened
the Jellábs (slave-dealers) and the local authorities to attempt a
second, which became a national scandal. Despite the convention with
Great Britain, a large slave Caravan was openly conducted into Assiout
(Lycopolis), a town of thirty thousand souls, a railway and telegraph
station, the seat of a Christian mission, and actually one of the
four slave bureaus. The latter had also been established at Cairo,
Alexandria, and Tanta, purposely neglecting Assouan (Syene, at the
First Cataract), whence there was a regular slave-line to Cairo. But
the whole purpose was to satisfy the Consulate-General, or, as Colonel
Gordon has it, to 'act whitewash.' Some such object must always be
expected in Egypt when there is no European supervision.
"This insult to the Powers was brought to light by Herr Gottfried
Roth, a young Swiss teacher in the admirable mission schools of the
United States. He had already heard of the March Caravan of three
hundred head having been seen at Korosko on the Nile; and he had been
informed that another from El-Fashr was expected at Assiout. He at
once (April 20) visited the encampment of a thousand camels pitched
in the Desert, near the town, and was assured that the traders had
brought natron and ostrich feathers, but no slaves. He returned the
same evening, and was offered fifty to sixty head for sale, at fifteen
to twenty napoleons each. Next morning he went to Cairo, and laid the
case before the English Consul-General (Mr. Malet), who, of course,
knew nothing of the matter. The outrage was at once reported to Riaz
Pasha and to the Ministry, who, doubtless, were well acquainted with
all the details. They affected complete ignorance, and thus confessed
to the pleasant position of being indebted for the first news to a
foreigner. However, foreseeing trouble, they resolved to act at once,
and, _alla Turchesca_, to counteract as much as possible their own
action.
"Herr Roth, knowing that the slave camp contained about three hundred
dealers, headed by a notorious Ali, applied for a force to arrest
the offenders. Next morning he returned to Assiout with a company
of 108 regulars and three pashas, including a certain Doromanli. A
cordon was drawn round the camp, with sentinels to prevent its being
broken; and sixty-seven starveling slave boys (twenty-eight) and girls
(thirty-nine) in filthy rags were found lying on the sand. It was a
dreadful sight, which drew tears even from the Egyptians.
"Next morning, at three a.m., Herr Roth led the wretches under
military escort to the American Mission, the only safe place. At the
same time the town was watched, and the chief streets were occupied
by guards, with orders not to pass negroes. The Caravan had brought
twelve hundred slaves, and almost all were stowed away in the houses.
"The _Kazi_ (judge) sent with Herr Roth by the Riaz Ministry,
then opened proceedings. Had he arrested all the negroes in the
camp he would have secured testimony to proceed against the local
slave-dealers, of whom many slept in the tents. But that was not
his object. By the law of Egypt these men were guilty of theft with
manslaughter. He took down the names of thirty-five traders, who
swore that the chattels were their wives, children, and servants; and
he illegally let the rest go. Herr Roth, despite his protests, was
utterly unable to prevent this gross miscarriage of justice. Doromanli
Pasha, in the presence of Dr. Hogg, Principal of the American Mission,
also examined some of the thirty-five prisoners before several of the
most influential men of Assiout. Not a few of those arrested confessed
that the negroes had been stolen, but when the witness was asked the
name of the buyer, the good Pasha silenced the answerer. Herr Roth,
after attending the tribunal for a day and a half, left it in disgust
at this gross misconduct in a Government official who, however, was
doubtless acting under orders of the Ministry.
"The slaves, when questioned in Arabic by the mission, related
harrowing stories of their having been kidnapped. Some were stolen
from their hearths and homes; others were forcibly dragged away while
tending their cattle--_min wara el bahim_ (from behind the cattle)
is the phrase generally used. A young wife was thus torn from her
husband, and a lad of eighteen showed upon his neck the marks of the
chains in which all were bound.
"To abate so great a scandal as that exposed by Herr Roth, the
Governor of Assiout was formally removed; but in Egypt that punishment
has the less significance because it generally leads to a better
appointment. Nor can underpaid officials, as are all Easterns below
a certain grade, fairly be expected to refuse the large inducements,
varying from $2 to £2 per head, offered by the slave-dealers. The
Jellábs were at once set at liberty by Doromanli Pasha, with free
permission to enter the town and to return home when they pleased.
Of the slaves, forty-two were 'liberated,' that is, were handed over
to the Pashas and Beys of the pro-slavery party: and, as Colonel
Gordon remarked, a sale had been better for them. At the request of
the British Consul-General some sixty were set free and carried for
manumission to the _baptizoh_ (police office). The only result was,
that on May 29 a boatload of the wretches was sent down to Cairo, and
there disappeared. On May 18, an old slave, who went to the Government
for 'papers of liberation,' was put in irons, as the marks on his
body proved; he refused to obey the _Mudir_ and declare that he had
emigrated of his own accord. In brief, out of the twelve hundred head
only three hundred, almost all children, were recovered from the
buyers.
"So open and notorious a breach of treaty as that of the Assiout
caravan compelled the Ministry to do something. Riaz Pasha abolished
in June, 1880, the worthless slave bureaux, whose only work had
been to send in more blinds by way of reports, and published in the
_Moniteur Egyptien_ (June 9th) a circular letter addressed to eight
_Mudirs_ or local governors. It ran as follows, and enabled Mr. Malet
to assure his Government that the Riaz Ministry was most earnest and
energetic in its measures to put down slavery. His Majesty's Ministers
acknowledged the Pasha's good works by sending him a decoration, and
retrograde Turkey showed her sympathy by advancing him to the grade of
_Mushir_ (Field-Marshal)--
"_Lettre-Circulaire_.
"'Adressée par S.E. le Ministre de l'Intérieur aux Moudirs de Isneh,
Keneh, Djirdjeh, Syout, Beni-Souef, Minieh, Fayoum, Djizeh, et Béhéra,
en date du 9 Juin, 1880.
"'Vous n'ignorez pas, Monsieur le Moudir, le degré de l'importance
qui s'attache à la suppression de la traite des esclaves, ce commerce
étant à la fois contraire aux principes mêmes de l'humanité et aux
engagements qui lient le Gouvernement de S.A. le Khédive vis-à-vis du
Gouvernement de S.M. Britannique, en vertu de la convention intervenue
entre les deux Gouvernements.
"'Pour atteindre ce but, certaines mesures avaient déjà été prises,
des instructions rigoureuses avaient même été données à tous les
agents de l'Autorité, pour qu'ils eussent à se pénétrer de leur devoir
et des mesures qu'ils auraient à prendre dans cette question. Les
faits récents, dont l'instruction a démontré qu'il a été possible à
quelques djellabs (marchands), arrivant avec des caravanes venues
de l'intérieur de l'Afrique, d'amener nombre d'esclaves, et de les
introduire dans le territoire du Gouvernement, d'une part, et la
négligence des agents de l'Autorité dans cette partie du territoire
qui a donné lieu à leur poursuite et condemnation, d'autre part, ont
crée pour le Gouvernement l'obligation de prendre des mesures plus
grandes et plus efficaces pour supprimer complètement ce honteux
trafic, et de renouveler ses instructions, et avertissements à tous
ses agents, afin de leur rappeler leurs devoirs et la responsabilité
qui en est la conséquence.
"'A cet effet, le Gouvernement vient de créer un service spécial pour
supprimer la traite, empêcher l'entrée en Egypte d'aucun esclave,
et punir toute personne qui oserait entreprendre un commerce aussi
révoltant, et tout agent de l'Autorité qui négligerait de remplir son
devoir.
"'Le Gouvernement a confié la direction de ce service à M. le Comte
della Sala, sous les ordres duquel l'Autorité a placé un nombre
suffisant de soldats et d'agents, et lui a désigné pour siège
principal de son service la ville de Syout. La mission du Comte
della Sala comprend toutes les provinces et toutes les parties de la
Haute-Egypte jusqu'à Djizeh, à l'est et à l'ouest, et depuis Djizeh
jusque et y compris la province de Béhéra, à l'ouest du Nil; elle
comprend aussi la surveillance et la préservation de toutes les routes
et de tous les chemins, de tous les déserts à l'ouest, les limites des
oasis intérieurs et extérieurs jusqu'à Mariouette.
"'S.A. le Khédive a donné au Comte della Sala pleins pouvoirs pour
l'exécution et l'accomplissement de la charge qui lui est confiée.
"'C'est pour le même effet que je vous adresse cette lettre, Monsieur
le Moudir. Vous recevrez plusieurs exemplaires de la convention passée
entre le Gouvernement Egyptien et le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté
Britannique, ainsi que des règlements qui établissent les obligations
des agents de l'Autorité, les mesures à prendre, et les peines bien
graves à encourir par toute personne qui entreprendrait ce trafic
ignominieux. Ces dispositions serviront de guide à votre conduite et
action; vous aurez en outre à les faire publier parmi tous les agents
et toutes les communes placés sous votre direction. Vous reconnaîtrez
Monsieur le Comte della Sala comme étant le chef unique de ce service,
et devant être l'intermédiare entre vous et l'Autorité Supérieure pour
tout ce qui concerne ce service. Toutes les correspondances qui s'y
rattachent doivent émaner de lui, ou lui être adressées. Vous devez
suivre ses ordres et ses prescriptions avec la plus grande exactitude
et la plus grande vigilance, et lui prêter immédiatement et sans le
moindre retard toutes facilités et assistance quelconque qu'il pourra
se trouver dans le cas de vous demander relativement à ce service.'
"Despite this show of indignation and threats of severity, the revival
went on merrily. Colonel Gordon had calculated that fifty thousand
head annually leave what may now be called Equatorial Egypt to supply
the households and harems of Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and other Moslem
lands. Of these, some thirty thousand are run across direct to
Jeddah, Hodaydeh, and other neighbouring ports with the full consent
of the local authorities, who levy a capitation tax of ten piastres.
During the April-May of 1880, about three thousand head, at the
lowest figure, found a ready market in Egypt. Although open sale was
forbidden, and the old slave market has been sold, there are still
bagnios in the Moslem quarter of the capital.
"Herr Roth, well knowing that other Caravans were expected, applied
for an escort of fifty men to scour the desert oases and borders
of the desert, in which the 'captives' were stowed away; he might
have set free one thousand or so, but he was refused. And he
had an unpleasant correspondence with Baron de King, the French
Consul-General, for reporting as one of the most energetic of the
slave-dealers at Assiout, a Captain M. Magar Damian, the French
Consular Agent. He was charged with _trop de zèle_, and was told
officially, that is, unpleasantly, to mind his own business. However,
he did good work by printing a map of the Libyan Desert, showing the
five favourite stations for stowaways. These are chiefly the oases
of Khargeh (El-Khárijeh, the 'outer') and Dakhleh (El-Dákhilah, the
'inner'), and neither had even a sentinel to stop the traffic. From
the latter (in N. lat. 25°) the Caravans pass on to the Faráfarah
Oasis and to Assiout, or to El-Bahriyeh and the Siwah Oases.[3] These
favourite depôts are now guarded by a fair number of men; and sections
of companies with dromedaries are also stationed in the Fazyúm, a
notorious slaving province; at Turá, near Cairo, where the fellahs
hide their goods in the Mukattam Hills; at Abusír, near Lake Mareotis;
at Wardán, to command the line of the Natron Lakes, and at a few other
crucial points.
"Despite the Ministerial Circular, slaves poured in. Shortly after
mid-May, eighty captives were taken at the Bolák Dakrúr station, on
the west of the Nile and within sight of Cairo. They were found to be
part of a batch of a hundred and twenty-six; the other forty-six had
probably been sent forward and sold. In early June, some six weeks
after the Assiout scandal, a third Caravan was reported to be making
for that station from Dar-Fur, along the inland highway. When it
arrived only thirty men and a hundred and sixty camels were counted:
the slavers had heard of the capture and had left their chattels in
the desert, some say with cut throats.[4] A fourth body was reported
to be camping near one of the oases. About the same time a boat with
ten slave-girls left Assiout for Cairo; on June 10, four Circassian
girls were sold--one at Alexandria for £100, another at Assiout, and
the two remaining at the capital, where they were secured for the
highest harems. This branch of white slavery, though much reduced,
still continues. In October, 1880, two white girls of eight and twelve
years old were sold without opposition at Alexandria, and even on
January 4, 1881, four more were landed at that port.
"In June also a Nubian or Abyssinian 'beauty' was bought at the
Meydán, or Moslem quarter of Alexandria, for £40 to £50, while two
other Nubian girls fetched £12 to £15. This cheapness of an expensive
commodity tells its own tale. In fact, the prices have not varied
between 1874 and 1880. Nubian boys in the former year fetched from
$40 to $60; girls, $45 to $70; and adults, $40 to $100. The relative
prices of Abyssinians were $50 to $80, $80 to $150, and $85 to $200.
In 1875 the values rose about 15 per cent.; and in 1878 they fell 12
to 18 per cent. In 1879-80 the prices 'ruled firm.'[5]
"To note a few more individual cases. A negro applied to the United
States Mission at Assiout for aid in recovering his young wife, who
had been cruelly beaten and put in irons by her master. This was
the practice of the Bureaux when old slaves legally demanded their
liberty. It was also reported to the mission that from forty to
fifty slave-girls, driven by a Cairo dealer, were for sale in a yard
at El-Farshút, a town three and a half days' march from Assiout.
In August a hundred slaves were reported to be kept in the house
of the Shaykh-el-Balad (Mayor) of the Khargeh Oasis, who demanded
an honorarium of £1 to £2 per head. In October two Nubian girls,
belonging to Mustafa Pasha el-Arab, a pensioned officer of Government,
having been cruelly beaten, obtained a certificate of freedom from
the Police Office, Alexandria; they were, notwithstanding, recovered
by their inhuman master, who brought against them the usual unjust
accusation of theft. The 'counter-charge' had become a system.
Before 1873 an ill-treated slave could generally obtain legal
manumission. This humane measure became obsolete under the present
retrograde and anti-European Ministry. Slaves have even been punished
for calumniating their owners.[6] No more need be said concerning
individual sales: these pages could be filled with such cases; but
their object is to take a broader view of the subject.
"To return to the Riaz Circular. In May, 1880, Mr. John Scott, the
learned and upright judge of the Supreme Court, Alexandria, had
proposed to Mr. Malet and Major Baring to appoint an English chief for
the 'Service of the Suppression of the Slave-trade,' newly organized
to take the place of the absurd 'Bureaux.' But the department was
to be made inefficient. There are three great trunk roads for slave
importation--the Nile, the Western Desert, and the Red Sea. The
superintendent should have had charge of all three, with assistants
at Maritime Masáwwah and Suakin; and at Assouan and Khartoum, on
the Nile line, he should have been provided with steamers on both
waters, with a roving commission to visit all the ports, and powers
to establish slave approvers. In fact, he should have been enabled
to organize suppression, or at least repression. There are sundry of
our countrymen perfectly fitted for the post, notably Dr. Lowe, now
Sanitary Inspector at Alexandria, who served under Colonel Gordon, and
who is well acquainted with Upper Egypt and the Soudan. But Mr. Malet
was too cosmopolitan, too 'Anglophobie,' to prefer a compatriot, and
he chose for nominee Count della Sala, a 'man of independent position,
with his heart in the business.' Possibly the hope was _quieta non
movere_, and to see work done, but without publicity or severity. A
certain Ali Riaz Pasha was made Governor-General of the Egyptian Coast
of the Red Sea, where the Port of Suakin had become notorious for
shipping slaves.[7] The Commissioner's appointment was worth having,
thirty thousand francs a year and the rank of Pasha (Major-General),
under ten months' service. Count della Sala was supplied with an
aide-de-camp, Colonel Turneisen, and a secretary, Dr. Dutrieux. This
Belgian physician, who had travelled with the Belgian exploring
expedition to Central Africa, presently left the 'service,' apparently
because its operations were too restricted.[8] An agency was also
offered to Herr Roth; the pay was 200 francs a month; but it was to
be a secret, and the agent was to bind himself not to correspond with
the newspapers, nor to write upon subjects connected with the slave.
The young Swiss's honesty refused the attempt to silence him. The
new department, whose range was limited by Alexandria and Assouan,
doubtless, was _intended_ to show good; but it has done more than the
intended good. Another mere sop as to foreign Powers, it has proved
that no such half-measures are of the slightest use. When the highest
native dignitaries support the abuse, which has the active sympathies
of the public, and where foreign officials, with a few exceptions,
know nothing of the people, and are almost indifferent to the
existence of slavery, there can be but one way of abating the nuisance.
"Though appointed early in June, Count della Sala contented himself
with preparations till August. He then left Cairo for Assiout; and, in
early September, found himself at Assouan, the southernmost point of
his beat. With his escort of four hundred infantry and sixty cavalry,
and acting with energy and discretion, he had little difficulty in
temporarily closing the line of the Nile. But all foresaw the effect
of that proceeding, which merely diverted the traffic to the Red Sea.
The Jellábs must have laughed consumedly at the naïve simplicity of
Europeans, so strong in arms, so weak in wits. The result was, despite
the new 'service,' an immense increase of activity in the slave-trade.
Count della Sala complained (November 19th) to Riaz Pasha that his
work had been misreported. The Berberine Governor-General of the
Soudan declared that the 'slave-trade was to-day unknown on the coasts
of Red Sea,' and the Ministerial newspapers (_Moniteur, Egyptien,_
etc.) assumed a tone of offended dignity. 'What right have people to
complain when Egypt was never so active in the suppression of slavery,
when we are spending £14,000 a year!' True, but notwithstanding the
import notably increased, and people will look at _results_. To the
boast that six hundred slaves (a mere handful) had been liberated,
it asked how many slavers had been arrested _en flagrant délit_ and
hanged. It had a right to show surprise when the answer was 'none.'
"Thus we can perfectly appreciate the value of the following
supplementary circular of July, 1880:--
"'MINISTÈRE DE L'INTÉRIEUR.
"'Lettre-Circulaire adressée à tous les Moudirs.
"Malgré les mesures rigoureuses, prises en vu d'empêcher la traité,
et en dépit des peines prescrites à l'égard des Djellabes (marchands)
qui osent encore se livrer à ce trafic, ces derniers ne reculent pas
devant l'entreprise d'amener des personnes en qualité d'esclaves.
"'Il est incontestable que les Djellabes ne continuent ce commerce que
par ce qu'ils trouvent des acquéreurs qui achètent leur marchandise
et qui entretiennent ainsi à leur profit une ressource de bénéfices
considérables. Il est élémentaire, en effet, que faute d'acheteurs les
Djellabes auraient depuis longtemps abandonné ce commerce, et comme
conséquence le Gouvernement ne se serait plus trouvé dans la nécessité
de surmonter bien des difficultés et de supporter tant de dépenses.
On aurait évité aussi l'application des peines graves qui atteignent
plusiers des Djellabes et autres dans le but de supprimer complètement
la traite.
"'En conséquence, et considérant qu'aux termes de la convention
intervenue entre le Gouvernement du Khédive et le Gouvernement de
S.M. Britannique toute personne qui prendrait part à la traite des
individus amenés dans les conditions précitées est considérée comme
complice du Djellabe au double point de vue du crime et de la peine
qu'il entraîne, il a été jugé nécessaire d'avertir que toute personne
qui achèterait des esclaves amenés et vendus frauduleusement par les
Djellabes, est soumise aux mêmes peines qui frappent ces derniers, en
vertu du règlement relatif à la suppression de la traite.
"'Le présent avertissement est donné au public afin qu'il soit connu
de tous, que toute personne qui s'exposerait à commettre le crime
ci-dessus signalé s'attirerait elle-même l'application de le même
peine prescrite à rencontre des Djellabes.
"Le Ministre de l'Intérieur,
"'(Signé) RIAZ.
"'Caire, 31 Juillet, 1880.'
"The moment the Chief of the 'service' returned to Cairo the slave
import again distributed itself between the Red Sea and the Nile. The
Riaz Ministry, however, did not fail to make the most of the temporary
shift. A German employé, Giegler Pasha, Deputy-Governor of the Soudan,
a lieutenant of Rauf the Berberine, and _ipsis Muslimis Muslimior_,
was put forward to romance for the benefit of his adopted country.
Accordingly, he wrote to the official journal of Cairo (October 11th)
emphatically denying that the traffic of slaves had increased in
the Soudan since the departure of Colonel Gordon. He denounced such
attacks as 'unjust and ignoble, and offensive to truth;' and he ended
by a personal attack on Dr. Lowe, an officer universally respected.
At Khartum itself the trade, it is true, has been extinct; at least,
slave Caravans are no longer marched there, and Herr Giegler had not
visited the unhappy hunting-grounds since 1876.
"But this German official's assertions were utterly opposed to fact.
Schweinfurth, of 'The Heart of Africa,' who had lately reported the
murder of King Munga, of Monbutto, by Yusuf Pasha, Mudir of Senár,
forwarded (November 11th) a report from Herr Richard Buchta, a
young Austrian, who had lived three years (1878-80) in the valley
of the Bahr el-Ghazal, and in Mtesa-land, working as a photographic
artist. He named seven _Mudirs_ engaged in shipping slaves, one
of them receiving two dollars a head: he accused the Captains and
crews of the Government steamers of the White Nile as implicated
in the trade; he forwarded a list of prices paid for 'chattels'
($50 to $200); he reported meeting a Caravan of a hundred head at
Metemma, in June, 1880, and he declared that negroes were shipped
for Jeddah with passage tickets granted at the Government office,
Khartum (_Anti-Slavery Reporter_, November, 1880). His statements
were confirmed by a letter (September 21st) to _La Finanza_, an
Italo-Egyptian paper, by Messrs. Wilson and Felkin, who had travelled
from Uganda, and found the trade thriving in Kordofan, Dar-Fur, and
other Egyptian provinces of Equatorial Africa.
"The utter failure of the 'Service for the Suppression of Slavery'
bore fruit in Egypt. Conceding that the Government was disposed
seriously to carry out the provisions of the Anglo-Egyptian
Convention, sensible men found that this instrument, despite its
apparent stringency, abounds in faults and omissions. There is no
need to quote the text _in extenso_; it is given in that popular
publication the _Anti-Slavery Reporter_ (November 1st, 1877), and in
the official collections of such documents, dated August 4th, 1877. It
was signed by Cherif Pasha, one of the most straightforward statesmen
known to this part of the world; and it was followed by a decree of
the ex-Khedive, Ismail, on the 17th of the same month.
"Briefly to note the defects of the seven Articles. No. I makes
all public trading in slaves, negroes, and Abyssinians, illegal,
vaguely punishable by law. Good; but also Article II., which condemns
slavers guilty of _vol avec meutre_, and would punish the Jellábs
as murderers, is so severe that it defeats its own object. Article
III. promises well in favour of released slaves, who, it gratuitously
assumes, cannot be returned to their homes; but does not specify the
measures. Article IV. pursues as murderers all 'mutilators' of, and
'traffickers' in, children; the former would be justly punished; but
the latter would escape. Article V. refers to a special ordinance
concerning slave traffic in the Egyptian dominions. Article VI.
concedes the right of search, but allows an open door of escape for
slaving vessels; and, finally, Article VII. fixes the date when the
Convention shall become operative. Annex A. establishes a special
slave department at Alexandria and Cairo to carry out the Convention.
Of this mere 'blind' sufficient has already been said. A supplement
of four articles prohibits private sale and transfer of black slaves
from family to family, after seven years (1884) in Egypt proper and
twelve years (1889) in the Soudan. This measure should have been made
immediate under pain of fine and imprisonment; the custom has long
been the favourite excuse and subterfuge for the import trade; and
now, while _wholesale_ is forbidden, _retail_ is permitted. Lastly,
the supplementary article, No. III., abolishes the traffic in white
slaves (_i.e._ Circassians), male and female, after the expiration of
seven years (1884). Here again is another undoubted error of judgment;
the white 'chattel,' a mere article of luxury and _luxure_, should
have been made at once contraband.
"Nor was Colonel Gordon's scheme for the suppression of slavery less
criticized. That energetic officer again proposed (_Anti-Slavery
Reporter_, p. 120, November, 1880) a permanent Consul at Suakin, the
great outlet of North-eastern Africa; a Vice-Consulate at Masáwwah,
and a Consul-General for the Soudan, with a roving commission, and
head-quarters at malarious Khartum. He would also--(1) register
existing slaves; (2) proclaim that non-registered slaves are free;
and (2) forbid Arabs passing into the Bahr el-Ghazal basin without
passport or guarantee that the travellers will not buy slaves. The
same precaution was to be taken for Dar-Fur, 'of whose population at
least two-thirds has been carried away into slavery.' But Consuls are
not dictators--they may be useful in reporting, but they cannot put
down the scandal. In fact, all these measures are mere palliatives
when humanity calls aloud for a cure. We must strike at the _fons et
origo mali_.
"In this conviction I addressed my Government (February 7th, 1881) a
letter upon the detestable traffic in eunuchs. All forms of slavery
are as contrary to the spirit of El-Islam as to that of Christianity,
but Mohammed especially forbade the employment of unsexed men, lest
a demand be thereby created (Hidayah, vol. iv. p. 121). Article IV.
of the Anglo-Egyptian Convention rightly punishes the offence with
death; and no one would regret to see the murderer hanged when a
boy dies under the mutilating razor. Yet it is calculated that not
less than eight thousand of these unfortunates are annually imported
into Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. As a rule, the 'Tawashi' are now an
obsolete article of luxury, used to sit at the doors of wealthy Beys
and Pashas, and to escort 'Harems' when driving out.
"The foci of the supply are the Soudan, Nubia, Abyssinia, Kordofan,
and Dar-Fur, especially the Messalmiyeh district. One of the frontier
towns is called Towasheh (eunuchs), from the infamous traffic there
conducted by Moslem 'Fakih,' or religious teachers.[9] Many are
emasculated in the district between Majarah, or Majarash, and the port
of Masáwwah. There are also shambles at Mbadr, near the harbour of
Tajurrah, where Yusuf Bey, the Governor, last year unsexed some forty
boys, including the brother of a hostile African Chief. All these
places are now Egyptian.
"The nature of the subject forbids details in pages intended for the
public eye; but, in communicating with my Government, I have been
as explicit as decency permits, and my description makes the blood
run cold. The subjects range between four and ten; if this operation
be performed on older boys, they seldom survive. At the age of ten
the loss may be seventy per cent., and even in the case of younger
children about one-fourth, to state a low figure, die from the razor.
By this murderous operation, boys who would fetch from £5 to £10 rise
in value to £25 and £80. Here, then, the manumission might well begin.
All eunuchs should be set free without compensation to the owners,
who have broken the Commandments of their own Lawgiver by purchasing
them; and the extreme penalty of the Convention should be carried out
in the cases of notorious mutilators, who have slain literally their
hundreds.[10]
"The foregoing pages prove, if they prove anything, that the Egyptian
Government has done what it could, in fact what we may characterize as
its best, and has failed; that when the course of slave importation
is blocked upon the Nile, or the desert, it shifts to the Red Sea, or
_vice versâ_; that the stowing away of 'chattels' in the various oases
greatly increases their miseries; and that the numbers imported and
the prices ruling in 1880 do not materially differ from those of 1873.
"The abolition of slavery is unpopular amongst the mass of Egyptians,
whose prejudices in its favour are often charged upon their faith.
_On the contrary_, Mohammed went as far as any innovator could go, in
attacking a national custom of immemorial origin. He nowhere speaks
of a legitimate source of slavery, except those taken captive in war,
men who would otherwise be put to death; and, even in this case, he
enjoins their being set free on payment of a fair ransom. 'You all
come one from another and from Adam, the common father,' he exclaims.
In one place he enjoins that alms-giving should buy the freedom of
slaves; in another he expressly commands, 'Show kindness to your
slaves;' and in another (Korán, chap, xxiv.) he says, 'If any one of
your slaves asks from you his freedom, give it to him, if you judge
him worthy of it; give them a little of the goods which Allah granted
you.'[11] And it may be noted that amongst Moslems of all sects the
name of Jelláb, the 'seller of men,' is synonymous with infamy.
"Egypt has now reached that grade of civilization when she can afford
to dispense with the _corvée_ (forced labour) and with every form
of slavery. All Egyptians know that the slave mostly leads an idle
and useless life; and that reduced cultivation reduces revenue. All
right-thinking Egyptians will rejoice to see the pauper freeman
employed, instead of the rich man's slave, to see honest labour
relieved from the curse of servile competition. But there must be
pressure from without. The present state of things is unfair to
all. It is unfair to the Prince, whose humanity revolts against the
institution, but who cannot abolish it single-handed. It is unfair to
the Government, which is impotent, and will be impotent in presence
of public prejudice. It is unfair to the Jelláb, who is legally
doomed to death, and socially encouraged by large profits to persist
in his organized murders. And I need scarcely say that it is unfair
to the slave, whose hard lot is made harder by the impotent attempts
to 'suppress' him. Briefly, there is no possibility of arresting the
supply except by cutting off the demand. It was the same in Western
Africa, where the whole British fleet, much less a 'Coffin Squadron,'
could not have barred the Middle Passage, had not the Southern United
States, Brazil, and finally Cuba, refused to buy. Hence, for the last
decade, not a slave has left the Western Coast, and we now keep a
cruiser or two where, in 1865, we had sixteen.
"It is certain--and let the reader duly weigh the fact--that the blow
must come from Head-quarters in the shape of an immediate and absolute
manumission of slaves domestic and prædial in every part of Egypt.
The 'international supervision,' an idea lately ventilated, could do
no good. The proposed registration of slaves will prove a snare and a
delusion. We must not salve the core that wants the knife. A decree
abolishing the legal status of slavery would be a grand and generous
policy, spontaneously anticipating the period when the public opinion
of Europe will enforce the measure. Such a decree would meet with
universal favour, not only in England, which has ever denounced this
blasphemy against humanity, and in France, whose several Republican
Governments have always been inspired with the noblest sentiments upon
the subject of freeing the slave; it would be applauded throughout the
Civilized World.
"Nor would this decree entail, as it appears at first sight, a formal
interference with the rights of property, even conceding to man the
right to hold property in man. The proclamation would not cause the
good slave-master to lose his 'chattels.' The cruel and the niggardly
would lose them, and would deserve their losses. At the same time,
if judged advisable to follow the example of 1834, the owners might
receive a certain indemnity for slaves purchased _before_ 1877; and
a small loan would easily be raised for the purpose. Grants of land,
free of taxation for some years, might be given to the industrious
_liberti_ who wish to remain in Egypt; the others might be established
in colonies at Bogos and the many healthy sites near the highlands of
Abyssinia. But these are mere details. The essential point is a decree
for _general and absolute manumission_.
"And when humanity is satisfied by setting men free, it is to be hoped
that Egypt will do something towards the prevention of cruelty to
animals. The Egyptian is not brutal; his is the thoughtless cruelty
of the child, who cannot realize the fact that beasts suffer like
himself. Such is the force of custom that a donkey boy rarely passes
a donkey in the street without dealing a cut of the _jeríd_, or
palm stick. There have been various abortive attempts to organize
protective measures; but without the active co-operation of the
_native_ authorities none can succeed, and the retrograde Ministry of
Riaz Pasha has proved a stumbling-block in the way of all improvement.
"Financially speaking, Egypt is now on the path of Progress. Let her
show herself worthy of the good fortune that awaits her, and of her
high destinies as a civilizing Power in the barbarous regions of the
'Dark Continent.' Let her gratify the World, and secure for herself
the blessings of all good men by a decree abolishing utterly and for
ever the sale of human beings--the 'league with death and covenant
with hell.'
"RICHARD F. BURTON."
[1] "Their publications have carefully mentioned every traveller
who reported the 'steady increase of the trade in slaves,' and have
carefully ignored Professor Smith and me."
[2] "_Egyptian Gazette_, December 28, 1880."
[3] "The reduced map is given in the Supplement to the _Anti-Slavery
Reporter_, September, 1880."
[4] "This detail is given in a private letter to the writer."
[5] "_Il Messaggiere Egiziano_, Alexandria, August 7, 1880."
[6] "_L'Echo d'Orient_ of Alexandria, December 3, 1880."
[7] "An account of a Caravan and prices is given in the _Egyptian
Gazette_ of August 21, 1880."
[8] "_Anti-Slavery Reporter_, January, 1881."
[9] "For this particular see Dr. Lowe's valuable communication in the
_Anti-Slavery Reporter_ (September, 1880, p. 87). He is personally
acquainted with the ground."
[10] "'And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in
his hand, he shall surely be put to death.'--EXOD. xxi. 16."
[11] "M. Jules Sakakini, corresponding member of the Anti-Slavery
Society, has treated this matter in the _Echo d'Orient_, December 22nd,
1880."