Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-12-26

THE EAST AFRICAN SLAVE Trade
A HindOO merchant, of some reputation
as a champion of Hindoo widows, who
has visited Europe, and spent some
years at Zanzibar, publishes in q Bonn
bay native paper his experience Of the
East African slave trade. He states
that Kliva and the surrounding districts
are the principal seats of the trade. In
Zanzibar and the neighbOring places the
trade has been monopoliZed by Arabs,
as the British subjects have a restraint
there Mozambique, VeebOO. and the
Gooia territories being under the Poltu-
guese rule, the trade flourishes there
with greater vigor. On the north the
trade is still moderately carried on be-
tween Burawa and Central Madagascar,
and down to Sodala. On account of
British influence there are known to be
risks, and the traders proceed with strict
secrecy into the interior of Africa, and
they never reveal their real purpose, but
carry on the slave traffic under pretence
of being ivory merchants. The Indian
inhabitants who are said to have the
greatest share of the slave trade are
mostly CutChee, Bunnias and Bhattias,
Khoias and BOrahs. The native mer-
chants 90 to Samoa. Mombasa, Zanzibar,
Kilva, Queelowa, Mozambique, NADIA
gascar, Soffa!a and Kirmani. Grey
goods, sugar, ghee, wheat, spices, false
pearls, utensils, and iron are the prinCi-
pal commodities imported into the coast
towns by large native firms there. These
firms correspond with Hindoo and Khoja
firms in Bombay. We learn from Alden
that II. NJ s. BritOn remains at that
port to take Sir Bartle Frere and suite
to Zanzibar. According to the Bombay
papers a treaty sOlemnly putting down
the slave trade is to be the first step.
THE ITALIAN INUNDATIONs.-Adm
ting that the claims for help addressed
to the English people are so numerous
that great caution is needed before a
strong plea can be advocated for any,
the London Daily Telegraph declares
that the most pressing among all the
great cases of want is undoubtedly that
of the Italian peasants who have been
made houseless and homeless by the ter
rible inundations. A bare recital of the
facts which form the skeleton of the ca
lamity is more eloquent than any rheto-
ric. Four hundred square miles of fer
tile country have been laid under water,
and $4,000 people rendered homeless.
We shall have some slight idea of what
is meant by such a fact if we suppose
the whole country from Boston to Co.
hassett and ten miles on each side of the
line between the two places, submerged
as completely as if the waves of the sea
had flowed over the fields. We must
add the sudden and utter destitution of
every person in a town as large as'Lynn.
And even such appalling strokes of woe
do not complete the picture, since the
land will be unfit for tillage when the
water shall be drained off into the river
bed. The torrent which has Overwhelm-
ed houses and covered fields has brought
down myriads of stones and an immense
quantity of sand, so that the ground
which in summer was waving with the
fertility and beauty of corntield and
vineyard is now a desert. No plough
could pierce through the layer of stones
and boulders, nor could any corn or vine
sprout through the sand-covered soil
All hope of getting any harvest is gone,
and a great eXpanse of country is now
Valley of Desolation, saddened by the
spectacle of so many ruined people.
Much, no doubt, will be done to help the
poor peasants by Italy herself but her
means are small compared with those of
England and America, and we are sure
that the appeal for aid which she now
mutely makes will not remain unan-
swered.