Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24
THE SLAVE TRAFFIC.
A NOVEL AND EFFECTIVE CRUSADE
AGAINST 1T.
Natives of the slave-Stealing Regions
to be Organized and Armed
with Breachloeders.

In the first summer month of the pres
emit year an extraordinary individual sud-
1enly blazed upon the eyes OF the whole
world. His commission was as extraordi-
nary. At the time the attention of OBJ
servers was directed to Africa, in whose
jungles several famous explorers and adj
venturers were lost. Names of heroes
dead, reported dead, or missing readily re-
eur TO the mind. The chiyalric Gordon
had been slain. The hero of Merry, Ed
mund ODonovan, the war correspondent
of the London Daily Necs, was alleged to
have been killed, thodgh his body has
never been found; while his friends now
dispute in his favor the claims of Emin
Bey to be the White Pasha advancing on
Khartoum. Emin Bey's whereabouts is
puzzle. Stanley is lost, and all that can
be learned Of him is that he is in dire
peril. These explorers and many more
have for years, with armed bands at their
back, been endeavoring to penetrate the
mystery of the Dark Continent, to lay
open its rich fields to commerce and civil
cation, and, some of them at least, with
the intention of doing all in their power
to crush that internal slave traffic which
winds its hideous coils around the fairest
regions and the meekest peoples of the
earth.
The man who has so suddenly achieved
an international reputation is Cardinal
Lavigerie, and, like another Peter the
Hermit or st. Bernard, he has been COM
mlssloned by the present Pope TO preach
new Crusade = to gather faithful and
knightly soldiers wherever they may be
willing to offer their lives for the special
purpose of crushing this African slave
traffic which has baffied the efforts of the
European Governments. Cardinal Lavi-
gerie is the Archbishop of the resurrected
See of Carthage, once occupied by st. Au-
gustine and other eminent Fathers of the
early ages. He has for forty years been
at the head Of the French missionaries.
who have penetrated TO the heart of Cen
trail Africa, and he knows more than any
other living man, perhaps, about the great
continent which has SO long and so
strangely been mystery in pursuance
of this mission, for which he had prayed
and written SO long, Cardinal Layigerie
set out for Paris to establish this great
league of humanity and civiliza-
ton, destined to suppress, by action
from the interior, the unutterabIe evils
and horrors which Leo XIII. had
Just denounced in unmeasured terms.
The pulpit of the Church of st. Sulpice
was the Clermont of the new crusade. Be
fore an audience composed of the best rep
resentatives of French life, he drew a
picture of the slave hunts that entirely de-
stroyed all vague notions on the subject.
He told how torches were suddenly Lit at
midnight, how the silence was broken by
the noise of musketry; he painted the ter
rIhed natives flying in all direction: then
the formation of the caravans; the despair
OF those who are carried away; their re-
sistance, ending in assassination when it
has not succumbed to blows. After NOV
ing his auditors to tears, he showed what
had been done, and what ought to be done,
to suppress the infamy. More than half
the missionaries who devoted themselves
to the task have died, bnt still the number
ransomed by these missionaries was great.
he proclaims that this grand enterprise, to
which he has devoted the rest of his life,
is wide as the civilized world, and appeals
to all Christendom, without distinction of
creed:
Formerly, when Christians were ex-
posed to slavery in the East, crusades. mil
tary orders, were formed to defend them.
Let new crusade begin to-day. Let the
young, whose hearts are influenced BY
generous sentiments, set out and organize
defense against slavery. l will be the
apostle of this new. crusade. To-day in
France, tomorrow ii Belgium. I shall
speak to the millions of Christendom. |
shall appeal to public opinion, and | shall
arouse 1t by the spectacle of all this mis-
cry 1t is not only that there are souls to
be saved. This great continent must not
become desert; it must be saved. And
you, my brethren, act. Spread the good
tldlngs; you will thus render service to
your brethren. Speak to all, Catholics or
non-Catholics, to those who are non Chris
tians as well as to those who are, and tell
them that the cause to be defended is the
cause of humanity"
Cardinal Lavigerie has apparently
aroused one OF the most sudden and re-
markable enthusiasts of modern times.
In France, in England, in Belgium, in
Holland and in other countries, wherever
he has spoken, before statesmen, Protest.
ant clergymen and leaders of society. he
has carried all before him by his earnest
ness OF purpose and the largeness of his.
aims. In London, when he entered into
the narrowing details OF an African slave
hunt, women tainted, and even the careless
and indifferent were thrilled by the awful
realism Of the picture that he drew.
Newspapers of all shades of opinion, even
those whose tone is anti Catholic, appear
to be subdued by the personality of the
great Cardinal. Nor have his efforts been
followed by merely lip tributes; they have
borne abundant practical fruit. The
Catholics OF Holland have raised $3.50. 900;
those OF Belgium, 100000; immense sums
are accommodating in France; while great
contributions will doubtless come from all
Europe. King Leopold of Belgium has
placed at the disposal of the new crusade
a fine steel cruiser. Cardinal Lavigerie, in
calling for volunteers, desires only 700
men, There have been about 5000 appli-
cants so far, and he is embarrassed how to
choose.
As the time for action draws near. the
plan of the new crusade is being devel-
oped and perfected. So far, the method of
procedure, it seems, will be something like
this. His 700 men will be marched into the
very heart of these regions where the
Arab slave-stealers usually make their
raids. Cardinal Lavigerie has already
gained the goodwill of the native Eipos
and chiefs, and yet nearly all of them,
who dread these slave raids, vet have no
defense against them, have promised their
hearty aid and cooperation. Here his
crusaders will be divided into bands of
three or four, and thus sent out separately
to the villages through which the track of
the slave raiders lies. OF course each little
band will not rely upon itself to check a
powerful band of brigands. Its handful of
members will be organizers. With the
help of the chiefs and missionaries, some
two or three hundred natives will be en-
rolled, armed with the best modern breech-
leaders, well supplied with ammunition,
and thoroughly drilled in the use of these
destructive weapons, whose antique muz-
zle-loading prototypes, in the hands of the
Arabs, had struck such terror into their
hearts. They will quickly become used to
the weapon. and will learn its superiority
to the Arab musket. Such body of
men, led by determined Europeans,
sworn knights in holy cause, will be