Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-10-04
New Series, Vol. %, No. 40.
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
New York sun.
The destruction wrought in Central
Africa by Arab slave stealers within the
past five or six years Is appalling. In
regions were Livingstone, Stanley and
Cameron saw large populations no hu-
man inhabitants can now be found.
Most of them have been captured or
slaughtered, and remnants of tribes have
escaped into other districts. These re-
giOns are included between % degrees
and 81 degrees east longitude and be-
tween 3 degrees and II degrees south
latitude, and embrace an area of nearly
100000 square miles.
Among the most entertaining writ
ings of Livingstone and Stanley are their
descriptions of the beautiful land of the
Manyema, west of Lake Tanganyika,
and its unique inhabitants, and all these,
as Gleerup now reports, having COM
pletely disappeared except the gangs Of
Manyema slaves who work the Arab
plantations along the caravan route. The
path of Arab devastation extends
straight west from Lake Tanganyika,
past Nyangwe to the Upper Sankuru
five hundred miles, and for breadth of
seventy-1ive miles hardly native has
been left to tell of the awful invasion.
1t was in the western part of this dis
trict that Lieut.. Wissmann in 1882 visit
ed Bene HI town whose single street
extended for ten miles, whose huts were
twenty feet high and surrounded by neat
courtyards, whose men toiled In the
fields behind the houses, while all the
inhabitants bade the stranger welcome,
and about 5000 of them visited his camp
that evening. Two years ago Wissmann
passed again through that place. There
was nothing left of the happy home
steadS. In the tall grass that choked the
long street were found many charred
poles and bleached skulls. The hordes
of Tippu Tip within six months had paid
three murderous visits to this large set
tlement. Many women were carried OF,
all who offered resistance were killed,
and the fields, gardens,a and banana groves
were laid waste. Smallpox, introduced
by the Arabs. and famine completed the
tragedy. The powerful tribe Of Bene Ki
had ceased to exist, and only few in
dividuals had escaped south to Zappu
Zapp, chief who was himself refugee
from Arab aggression.
Along 800 miles of the Congo, between
Nyangwe and Stanley Falls, the Arabs,
according to Gleerup and Lenz, have de-
populated about $1,000 square miles of
territory. The numerous tribes whom
Stanley first saw have become slaves or
in greatly depleted numbers wander
through the forests far from the river.
About 10000 square miles Of the rolling
prairies west of Tippu Tbs home at
KasOngO have been utterly drained of
their people. About 10000 square miles
on the western headwaters of the Congo
are no longer profitable field for slave
In the very region where LiV-
ingstOne died and where his heart was
buried, extending southeast from Lake
BanweolO, and embracing about 1900
square miles, the Arabs, we are told by
Giraud, have completely ravaged the
country. And from all these centers of
devastation in the paths of the destroy
ers leading to slave marts and shipping
points may be traced by the bones of the
victims who fall by the way.
1t cannot be possible that the civilized
world will much longer permit this
colossal crime of the century to add to
its murderous results without taking
measures to put stop to it.