The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-08-14

ELM EODA
pressing the slave trade In this quarter win be
easy. No excuses will be received BY the British or
American slave squadron for the presence OF
single slave upon an Arab dhow, even as sailor,
and property In women slaves 10y far the most i'm
portant and serious branch OF the traffic In late
years. wil Of course, under no circumstances, be
respected
wnAF ARAB SLAVERY rs LIKE.
But while fully understanding the horrors In
volved In the capture OF the slaves In the upland
country OF Zanzibar IA detailed In the recent cor
respondence Of the HERALD Exploring Expedition,
IL should also be clearly kept In mind that when
once delivered into the hands OF their future Arab
masters the bondage Of these unfortunate crea-
lures is something very different rom what human
bondage used to be In the southern States or what
1t he at the present day in Cuba In the East
slavery has always been recognized institution
nom the days or the patriarchs, and 1t could
carcely have survived so long had Il been as
ubiquitous % the slavery OF the Gulf States.
Abrshams servants were doubtless slaves In very
much the same way as the purchased human prop
erty of an Arab chieftain In Muscat is to-day And
a. Arabs are naturally among the most humane
and generous and justce-lOvIng Of races, while by
strange sort OF moral blindness by no means incon-
sistent with their constitutional Incidence, both
mental and physical, they ignore altogether the
evils OF which they are indirectly the prompters in
buying the results Of crime, they esteem it as the
greatest possible dishonor and shameful wicked
ness II they maltreat slave after ne has once
come into their possession.
4 SOME CURIOUS FACTS.
Just few features OF Arab slavery viii demon
strate satisfactorily it's comparative mldness
Probably nearly two-thirds Of the imported slaves
are women, designed for the purposes OF concu'
binage. But even though an Arab has become the
owner of female slave, he Ia not permitted by the
Jaw to cohabit with her, except with her own voun-
tary consent, and he would be severely punished by
the cazee, or Judge, II the woman complained that
he had outraged her by force. And should the wo-
man consent and the union be q fruitful one the
mere fact of having borne child to her master
frees the happy mother, and further imposes upon
her former owner the duty Of maintaining her for
the rest Of her life In his own household as an In
separable member Of his family She may be re-
quired to perform certain domestic services, but
can never be again sold. and is to all intents and
purposes q sort Of supernumerary wife, And
lastly, SO far as the offspring Of such commerce
are concerned, the law is even more
humane still. Not only lie the child free,
but he ia equal in all respects with the
other white Tor, rather, Arab-colored, for
Semites can scarcely perhaps be called whlte) and
legitmately born children. Provision must be
made for him out Of the estate of his father at his
death the same as for the others, and should the
vote Of the assembled family call upon him to as
sumo the headship Of the family, which in Muscat
Is elective not hereditary distinction, he Is as
eligible as any Of his halfbrethren. To give case
In point, the present rulers of both Zanzibar and
Muscat are largely colored with black slave blood,
but are nevertheless obeyed with the SAME ODE.
dence by their white subjects as though they were
Of pure descent.
THE NATURAL KINDNESS OF THE ARAB.
The prejudice Of color, indeed, is altogether unin-
telligible, not to say abominably wicked and re-
voting, in the eyes Of good Mosem. To him all
men are the children of Allah, the All-Wise, the
All-Seing, the All-Benevolent One and only God;
and that curious supposition, once so strongly
favored in the South, that a negro has no soul
would strike him as an ineffaby horrible and BIAS
phemous doctrine. Inequalities Of fortune, how
ever, are much more simple matter, and that
man should be 80 unlucky as to have
master is, as he looks upon 1t,
merely decree Of Allah which, II
the man be wise and pious, he will
cheerfuiy submit to- In consequence OF these views
the first thing an Arab does with his slave is to try
and make him a Mohammedan, and in this he Is
almost invariably successful though now and then
one hears Of negro still practising in secret the
old heather rites of his native land And, the slave
owned-generally cultivate toward each other
kindness of feeling which Is sometimes singuary
touching. The writer has seen dhow set out for
Zanzibar from Muscat in charge OF a black slave
captain, with crew composed entirely Of slave
sailors. They were all perfectly contented and
happy, and the slave who was captain
istened to his masters final instructions
in very much the same Loyalty respectful spirit
| that an American skipper would listen to his
owner. That ship, OF course came back, and the
slave captain gave his master faithful account of
his stewardship. AS further Illustration of the
spirit Of Arab slavery, it may be said that on the
death OF an Arab his slaves are very frequently, If
not always, liberated in pursuance of his last
wishes, not bequeathed to his heirs.
DARKER FEATURES
But, no matter how mild this bondage may be,
there is always in the background that terrible
picture Of the means by which the slaves are origi-
nally procured-the native wars, the desOla-
ton of immense tracts Of country, the
deaths from heartache and the utter misery OF
forced abandonment Of those ties which are, prob
ably, as dearyes, certainly as dear, though, per-
| haps unconscously soto black as to white. And
| again, there s another dark stain upon the sys-
tem-the mutilation Of the boys so as to fit them
for the duties Of the eunuch. This hdeous crime
Is perpetrated after capture as convenient,
and though only attempted with children OF tender
age 1t is said that at least four out Of five operated
upon perish from the injuries they receive.
Slavery therefore. even at the best is an accursed
thing, and every good man will rejoice that there
is now bright prospect OF its being finally abol-
ished in what is now, perhaps its greatest strong
hold.
Doctor Livingstone's Letters to the New
York Herald Soliciting It's Aid for tho
Suppression OF the Slave Trade ON the
East Coast OF Africa.
From the London Spectator, August 81