The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-07-18
AFRICAN HORRORS.

LEO XIII has expressed the desire that
Cardinal LAvIGERIE, Archbishop Of Algiers
and Primate of the Catholic church in AT
RIGA, should become his successor. The
prominence of Cardinal LAvIGERIE is due
chiefly to the excellence of his work in the
suppression of the African slave trade His
duties as primate brought to his attention
to the horrors of the traffic in human flesh,
which the world supposed had practically
ceased. His soul bled in sympathy for the
poor blacks, and he assumed the mission of
stirring up the great European powers to a
realization of the awful truth. From coun-
try to country he has travelled on his mis-
sion of mercy, writing and speaking in be-
half of enslaved humanity. He created
popular sympathy which has eliminated in
widespread demand that meas
ures should be at once inau-
gurated to suppress the traffic. Not
altogether sure that European action would
be Jealous or sincere, he has made 4 strong
appeal to the United States. The cardinal
thus describes the march of slave cara
van on it's way to the coast:
The men who appear the strongest and whose
escape is to be feared, have their hands tied,
and sometimes 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. They march all day. At night,
when they stop to rest, a few handfuls of raw
"sorgho' are distributed among the captives.
This is all their food.
Next morning they must start again. But
after the first day or two the fatigue, the suffer
ingS and the privationS have weakened a great
many. The women and the aged are the first TO
halt Then, in order to strike terror into this
miserable mass of human beings, their conduct
ors, armed with wooden bar to economist
powder, approach those who appear TO be the
most exhausted and deal them terrible blow
on the nape OF the neck. The unfortunate vic
| tins utter cry and fall TO the ground IN the
| commissions of death.
The terrified troop Immediately resumes its
march. Terror has imbued even the weakest
\ with new strength. Each time some one breaks
down the same horrible scene is repeated. AT
night, on arriving at their hating place, after
the first days OF such life, not less fr1ghtful
scene awaits them. The trafickers in human
I flesh have acquired by experience knowledge
| OF how much their victims can endure. A glance
shows them those who will soon sink from
WEAKNESS; then, TO economic the scanty food
which they distribute, they pass behind these
| wretched beings and fell them with single
blow.
In this manner the weary tramp continues,
| sometimes for menths, when TIE caravan comes
| from a distance. Their number diminishes
daily. II, goaded by their cruel suflerlngS. some
| attempt to rebel or escape, their fierce masters
| cut them down with their swords and leave
them as they lie along the road, attached TO one
another by their yokes. Therefore it has been
truly said that if traveller lost the way leading
from Equatorial Africa 10 the towns where slaves
are sold, he could easily find it again by the
skeletons of the negroes with which il is streWed
STANLEY confirms these statements; he
says "that every five Thousand lives are
secured at the sacrifice of at least thirty
three thousand lives" Another witnes.
states "that the tracks of the slave caravan.
are traced through the wilds of Africa by
the bleaching bones of the unfortunate
blacks who have died from starvation and
ill-usage on the road"
Humanity demands that the Christian
nations in general, and that the United
States in particular, for the latter owes the
black race debt it can never pay, should
move expedetiously and effectively in the
suppression of these murderous atrocities
The Arabs, who are the Culprits, should
find the African coast guarded with reso