Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-11-29
The African Slave Trade.

GENERAL KIRKHAM, the English direc-
tor of the army of the King of Abys-
synia, has supplied to the London Daily
Telegraph some. valuable information re-
specting the traffic in slaves still carried
on between the interior of Africa and
the Turkish Empire. He says: a, .-s
The Abyssinian Envoy estimates the
number of slaves annually carried off
from Africa to the Arab and Turkish mar
kets at $4,000 to 10000. These unhappy
beings are taken away at ages ranging
from seven or eight to sixteen years, older
men and women being found more
| troublesome than valuable to the dealer
They are brought down from the centre
of the continent and the region of the
White Nile to Kassala, and are hurried on
to the slave market at Metemmeh, to be
resold for shipment to Jedda. Foreign
Consuls at Khartoum check, so far as
they possibly can, the passage of slaves
down the Nile, while Sir Samuel Bakers
expedition has done much also to increase
the difficulties which beset the transit of
slaves across that route The Shankelto
country and that of Woolah Gallas are
fayorite grounds for the nefarious and in
famous practice ofthe traf1ckers in human
beings, these provinces being close to
Bogos, through which, since the annexa-
tion by the Khedive, slaves can be safely
passed to Massowah, thence to be shipped
for the Arabian coast. Shankelto is a
district bordering on Abyssinia proper,
and is inhabited by wandering tribe
resembling Gypsies, who are regarded
as the Bedouins of Abyssinia Shankelto,
according to General Kirkham, belongs
of right to Abyssinia, and about eighteen
months ago Prince Kassai had occasion
to send down thither one of his Generals
with large force, completely to devast-
ate the country for the murders that
were frequently done there on his mer-
chants and priests-there being churches
there for the baptism of the people.gogdi
The following is the fashion in which
the slave dealers capture their victims: ::
They go into a village, take with them
silks, or beads, or bits of tin, and orna-
ments. They exchange these things Tor
slaves, or whatever they can get. The
merchants send the slaves quietly away
without much trouble, and eventually
they are trained as Mussulmans. They
are taken through Bogos to Massowah,
and they are sent thence to Jedda, whence
they are sent to Turkey by land. AS for
price, if female be of copper color, and
good features, she will bring as much as
$40, or about e28-that is, at the market
iniMetemmeth. which isa wholesale mar
ket. The retail price is according to the
state of the market to which they are first
taken. When sold in the second market
they vary in price. If a man took fancy
to female slave, he would perhaps give
500 more than another man.
The Shankeltos and Gallas are much
sought after for their beauty, and for
their superiority to the other tribes. A
strong boy will sell for 500 or $100. The
girls fetch more because they are wanted
for the harem. Traders will take away
girls when they can get them. When q
chief makes war on another, he makes 1t
an object to carry off as many girls as ne
can. He plumbers the villages and car