Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-10-18
The Slave Traffic Of To-day.

It is not generally known that at least
half million slaves are torn from their
homes in Central Africa every year and
sold into slavery. Yet that is the esti-
mate made by Cardinal Lavigarie on the
testimony of his OWE missionaries. The
London Spectator of recent date devotes
considerable of its space to a speech
made by the cardinal at a London meet
ing. Besides many perish in the slave
hunts and on the march to6he coast. The
aged, the cripples, the weak-all, in fact,
who cannot walk to the coast, or who
would fetch no price there-are ruthlessly
slain in the slave hunts. Yet their fate
is more enviable than that of those whose
lives are spared for the slave market.
The cardinal gives q narrowing descrip
ton of the march to the coast. To pre-
vent escape the strongest and most vigor-
GUS ''have their hands tied, and some
times their feet, in sUch fashion that
walking becomes a torture to them; and
on their necks are placed yokes which
attach several of them together" In
this way they are made to walk all day,
bearing heavy loads, aud at night few
handfuls of raw rice are thrown TO them.
That is their only meal for the day. The
story is most narrowing in all of its de-
tails. Those who halt by the way are
struck in the nape of the neck with a
heavy wooden bar, and fall in convrlsions
by the wayside. Months are sometimes
spent on the march, and SO numerous are
the victims of the cruelty of the drivers
that their bones, bleaching in the sun, are
a guide to the traveller through tho track
less forests. Many districts have been
almost entirely depopulated, and it has
become dangerous for the negroes TO
stray from their camps.
The country is said by explorers to be
one of the most fertile and inviting on
the continent, the inhabitants indus
trious and peaceful.
Cardinal Lavagerie thinks the extinc-
ton of the power of Islam the first step
towards putting a stop to the inhuman
traffic. sit is this population" ha says,
numerous, happy and peaceful, which
Islam is sextermina ing at this moment
by means of her slave hunters, and by
virtue of her doctrine that the blacks are
an inferior and cursed race, whom they
are at liberty TO treat worse thar we treat
our animals. May God preserve me from
accusing, without compulsion, any man,
and especially any people! But cannot
resist saying to day, that of the errors so
fatal TO Africa, the saddest is that which
teaches, as Islam does, that humanity is
made up of two distinct species, one, that
of believers, destined to command, the
other, that of the accursed, as they style
them, destined to serve, and in the lat
ter they think the negroes constitute the
lowest grade, and are on a par with cat
tie. Having reached by their conques;s
the heart of continent peopIed by
negroes, the Moslems have therefore be-
taken themselves to the work thai is
justified by their doctrine" The Spec
tator however, suggests a remedy tina.
has no little force. 1t is, the Spectator
thinks, Establishing centers of civiliza-
tlon here and there in the interior of
Africa, and thus organizing the natives,
so that with modern weapons in their
hands, they mar be not only able to hold
their own against the armed emissaries
of Islam, but in course of time to drive
them out of the countrY.-Memphi-
Avalanche.