Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-02-27

/ It to show that the continent is no
wholly the domain of slavery. Africa i,
not only cursed with every Ill begotte1
of domestic slavery, but it is also tn,
source from which more than half tn,
Mohammedan world derives it's supply O
bondsmen.
The fact is gratifying that through tn.
operations Of the leading nations, the are:
within which slave merchants prosper il
gradually lessening. The occupation o
the Turcoman man-stealer is gone sine,
Russia set his heel upon him and freed
his Persian slaves, of whom 40, 600 wert
found in the Khanate of the Khiva alone
The Shan states of Indo- China are still
the hunting ground of slave dealers, who
every year carry many hundreds of cap
tives down the Mokong river into Cam
bodia, down the Monam river into Siam
and over the mountains into AMMAN; but
the influence of England and of France i:
becoming paramount in these regions
English and Siamese schemes for rail
roads through the heart of the slave-pro
ducing countries are being favorably
considered, and it is believed that in the
near future the slave traffic among the
Shan tribes will be effectually discourag.
ed. Among the greatest slave stealers
has been the ameer of Afganistan, whose
barberous raids into the beautiful valley
of Kafristan, Just north of India, have
threatened the Kafr nation, numbering
100000 souls, with destruction. These
raids, melted almost solely by the high
market value of the nearly white female
slaves, have for the past few years beer
severely discouraged by the Indian gov.
eminent, and the Kafirs now enjoy com
parative immunity from the incursions oil
their Mohammedan oppressors. Last
years revelations, also, with regard tc
the horrors of the Pacific labor traffic
where hundreds of natives were torn from
their homes in New Guinea and othe1
islands to toll on the Queensland and
Fiji plantations, have resulted in the i'm
prisonment of some of the leading kid
nappers and the sudden suspension o.
their slave-stealing enterprise.
Still the process of wiping out slavery
wherever it has become a part of the
social fabric is very slow. 1t would re.
quire such a CONFUSION as that which
uprooted slavery in our own land sudden
ly to tear out its foundations in any
country where it has become an institu.
ton. By the convention which England
made with Egypt in 1877 the prohibi-
ton of the sale of slaves between
families throughout Egypt went into
in August, 1884. This provision,
however, is said to be as yet almost a
dead letter
THE DEMAND FOR NEGROES
from Persia, Turkey and Arabia is still
large, and it is this demand which with
in the past two years has helped to re-
vive the East African slave trade. It was
the opinion of the late Sir Bartle Frere
that the nations of Europe could never
put an end to the African slave trade I'M
til they put an end to slavery; that, in
fact, Turkey, Persia and other slave-hold-
ing countries must be made to under
stand that they would not be admitted
into the brotherhood of civilized nations
until they abjured slavery. However
this may be, it is certain that, in spite OF
the opposition of the most powerful ma
tons, those countries which desire slaves
from Africa still ind the means of filling
their markets.
Within the past ten years the number
of slaves in Brazil has decreased about
100000. There remain in bondage,
however, about 100000 persons, and
Don Pedro III. still rules over the largest
slave population in the world. Seven
teen years will be required under the
provisions of the new emancipation act
before Brazil can be numbered among the
free states, Spain is the only European
nation which still openly permits
the existence of slavery in its colo
MES. In Cuba, its largest colony,
q process of gradual emancipation
is slowly reducing the number of
although there are still over
100000 of them, thousands of whom
should, under the law, have received
their freedom years ago. Spain's conni-
vance at the existence of slavery is bet
ter than Portugal's nominal suppression
of the evil in her colonies. The law of
1878 is utterly ineffective. The Portu-
guese in Africa are just what Cameron
calls them, ''the accomplices of Save
traders and kidnappers." All travellers
on the Lower Congo know that slaves
are still shipped from the mainland to
the Portuguese islands, and within the
past twelve months, Portuguese gun
boats and mail steamers
HAVE TAKEN CHAIN GANGS
of black men to work on the plantations
of st. Thomas and Principe. As late as
last November complaint was made of the
slave traffic between the Portuguese pos
sessions on the east coast, Madagascar,
and the Comore islands. Portugal's dis
graceful record on the slave question is
only one feature of the unwise and in
efficient policy that has almost stifled ne
in every part of Africa where
her flag is recognized.
That form of slavery, the coolie sys-
tenn, which in the past fifty years has
hundreds of thousands of
Chinese and East Indians to Chill, Peru,
the British West Indies andother regions,
where they have worked for pittance
toiled under the lash and persisted in
is an evil that is not yet Who'll
" extinct. It is to the credit of our gov
that long ago it discountenan-
,ed these cruelties by making it a felony
Tor American ships to carry coolies under
Dor contracts in any part of the world.
a Stanley recently described the fiend-