The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-09-22
Horrors of the African Slave Trade

where the religion of Islam still u,
holds slavery. The particulars
this atrocious traffic were recentl
} outlined in graphic language befor
q large audience in London by Cal
dinal Lavigerie, the venerable Arcl
bishop of Algiers and Carthage
The spirit and value of the long ad
dress may be inferred from the fol
lowing extract, which is from tn
Times report:
l address myself to Christian
England, because nowhere can
find a greater respect for libert,
and human dignity. After havin,
destroyed colonial slavery England
owes it to herself to support by he
sympathies those who wish to de
stroy African slavery, a hundred
times more horrible. Slavery in
the proportions that it has now as
sumed means, in effect, the ap.
preaching destruction of the black
population of the interior of Africa
| come here as a fresh witness. ]
shall only speak to you of what l
know through my missionaries or
through the blacks delivered by me
from slavery. My missionaries are
established in the Sahara and upon
the high table-lands of Central Al
RIGA, from the north of Nyanza to
the south of Tanganvika. Eleven
of them have suffered martyrdom,
while more than fifty others have
died from fatigue and hardships.
Your Cameron affirms with truth
that halfa million slaves at the least
are sold every year in the interior
of Africa, and will content my
self with saying that the testimony
Of cur missionaries not only con-
firms, but raises this estimate for
those regions where they are estab-
lished. They have seen with their
own eyes in the course of ten years
whole provinces absolutely depop-
ulated by the massacres of the slave
hunters, and each day they are
Obliged to witness scenes which
point to the rapid extinction of the
race. They tell me, particularly of
the province of Manyuema, which,
at the time of the death of Living
stone, was the richest in ivory and
population, and which the slave
hunters have now reduced to des-
ert, seizing the ivory, and reducing
the inhabitants to slavery in order
that they may carry the ivory to
the coast, after which they would |
be sold. The contempt for human
life engendered by such examples
rs these, and by the passions of the
slave-hunters, is so great that you
,an imagine nothing more horrible.
# this state of things continue, the
leart of Africa will be an impene-
rable desert in less than fifty years.
Nevertheless, it is a wonderful coun-
ry, where Europeans might live,
and procure the necessaries
# life.
Africa is divided, really, into three
ones-the lowlands, along the sea-
oard of the Mediterranean; At \
antic and Indian Oceans. Advanc-
ng toward the interior, there is a
aised plateau of about 1000 feet
bove the sea, and above this first
lateau there is a second immense t
lble-land, about 1000 feet high. 1t
J there that fall every year those
bundant rains which form the great i
,kes, and it is from these lakes that t
ow the vast rivers of the Nile, the {
ongo, the Niger, the Zambesi and S
leir innumerable affluents. The i
ature of the soil, the heat of the t
IN and the abundance of water h
ontribute to make this country
ne of the richest and most beau 1
tul in the world. It is the native e
opulation of this beautiful country a
hich Islam is exterminating at i
lis moment by means of her slave b
unters and by virtue of her doc d
inc that the blacks are an inferior t.
I'd cursed race, whom they are at C
berty to treat worse than We treat S
lr animals. For over ha,f CEN S
ry, and while our gaze was fixed fl
oon other countries, Mahomedan "
m was invading, slowly and ST. tt
ntly, with indefatigable persever- a
lce,' one-half of Africa. Every if
here the emissaries of Islam pros d
ute the hunts which feed their
Sometimes the ravish-
s, concealing themselves along
e paths, in the forests, and in the
ain-felds, violently carry off the A
gro women and children who may b
.ss by unattended. Things have a.
ached such pass in the vicinity al
the great lakes that now [ quote Sc
e words of one of my missiona- a.
,s) "every woman, every child, b
at strays ten minutes away from p
cir village has no certainty of II
er returning to it," The impu- d
ty is absolute. No negro chief p'
the small independent tribes, W
long whom all the country is di- te
led, has the power of repressing TT
is violence. While the slave W
d;nr hands compncod of Arabs eN