, 1886-02-27
DOMAIN OF SLAVERY.
LARGE POPULATIONS ARE STILL
THE PREY OF MEN-STEALERS.
Human Bondage Yet F1ourishins I'm
Africa-The Shan States of I~ndo-china
Slave Tramc In Portuguese Possessions
The cooIie Observation-Disclosures


hunting raids still enrich n few men and
bring untold suffering upon thousands, or
where the bOndsman IL still driven to his
heavy tasks, are far more extensive than
we are apt to think In Africa, in Europe,
in Asia, in South America, in islands Of
nearly every sea, slavery still exists as a
domestic institution, and large popula-
tions are still the prey OF men-stealers. II
we mark In black those regions In Africa
where human bondage still fiourishes,
only Cape Colony, Algeria, and a few
spots on the west coast will be left to show
that the continent is not wholly the do
main of slavery. Africa is not only cursed
with every Ill begotten Of domestic slav-
cry, but II is also the source from which
more than half the Mohammedan world
derives its supply of bondsmen.
~sLAyERY's AREA BowIN LESS.
The fact is gratifying that through the
operations OF the leading nations the area
within which lave merchants prosper is
gradually lessening. The occupation OF
the Turcoman man-stealer is gone since
Russia set it's heel'upon him and freed his
Persian slaves, of whom 10000 were found
in the Khhnate OF Khiva alone. The shan
states OF Indo-China are still the hunting
ground of slave dealers, who every year
carry many hundreds Of captiyes down
the Mekong river into Cambodia, down
the Menam river into Siam, and over the
mountains into AMMAN.
Among the greatest of slave stealers
has been the ameer OF Afghanistan, whose
barbarous raids into the beautiful valleys
OF Kahristan, just north Of India, have
threatened the Kafir nation; numbering
300,OOO 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 been
severely discouraged by the Indian govern
ment, and the Kafirs now enjoy compare
tive immunity from the incursions OF their
Mohammedan oppressors. Last years
revelations, also, with regard to the hor-
rors Of the Pacific labor traffic, where
hundreds Of natives were torn from their
homes in New Guinea and other Islands to
toll on the Queensland and Fiji planta-
tons, have resulted in the imprisonment
of some of the leading kidnapers and the
sudden suspension of their slave-stealing
enterprises.
BRAZIL, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, CHINA.
Within the past ten years the number
of slaves in Brazil has decreased about
100000. There remain in bondage, how
ever, about 100000 persons, and Dom
Pedro II still rules over the largest slave
population in the world. Seventeen 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 that
openly permits the existence of slavery in
its colonies. In Cuba, its largest colony
n process OF gradual emancipation il
slowly reducing the number of bondsmen,
although there are still over 300, 900 of
them, thousands OF whom should, under
the law, have received their freedom
years ago.
The Portuguese in Africa are Just what
Cameron calls them, "the accomplices OF
slave traders and k%idnapers." All travel
ers on the lower Congo know that slaves
are still shipped from the mainland to the
Portuguese islands, and within the past
twelve months Portuguese gunboats 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 mnde of the
slave traffic between the Portuguese pos
sessions on the east coast, Madagascar,
and the Comoro islands.
That form of slavery, the coolie system,
which in the past fifty years has trans
ported hundreds of thousands of Chinese
and East Indians to Chill, Peru, the Brit
ish West Indies and other regions where
they have worked for n p%ittance, toiled
under the lash and persisted in multi
tudes, is m evil that is not yet wholly ex-
tinct. Stanley recently described the
fiendish inhumanity Of the Arab kidnap-
ers on the upper Congo two years ago.
Livingstone estimated that only one slave
in five from central Africa lived to reach
his destination. 1t is said hat only one
in three of the young slaves survive who
are tortured for the markets of Egypt and
Turkey.-New York Sun.