Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-17
Horrors of the African Slave Trade.
Albany On. Y Argus


The mission of Cardinal Lavigerie to
the european powers for the purpose of
enlisUipg their active sympathy in check
ing, if not extirpating the slave trade in
Africa, is likely to produce good fruit
Slavery, which has been abolished In every
other part OF the world, still exists in it's
most horrible form on the Ozark Contin-
ent," and it has been the aim of explor-
ers like Livingston and Stanley to lay
bare it's hideous features. In the vast
territories which lie Immediately south
of the European p ossession in North
Africa, of which Timbuctoo is the centre,
In the domiDions of the sultan of Zanzi-
bar and in the interior of the Congo re-
gion, the slave trade fourishes, to-day,
under Mussulman auspices. Cardinal
Lavigerie describes the crossing of the
Sahara desert, by the hocks of women and
children that the Arab caravans drag
after them, aud il reads more like the
tales of the early slave traders than oc-
currences of the present day. ga fright
ful Journey, in which they travel on foot
over dry sands beneath scorching sun,
and through a country in which food ia
often wanting, and water still more often.
| There ia enough for the slave traders,
| but the women and children receive
| only Just enough to keep them from
dying; for, if they died, they would cheat
| their .xecutioners of the profit they look
| for" If one of those unhappy captives
| fails through exhaustion, the death blow
| is given by the guard. Villages and
Whole provinces are devastate d in one of
those periodical "hunts" organized by the
Arabs tor slaves, aud the annual loss of
! human life is almost iDore dible. When
| the natives take refuge in the great
| tlickets or jung les, tins inhuman hunters
st fire to the brush and ca pture those
who are not scorched by the flames. By
| such barbarous excesses, the heart of Al
RIGA is rapidly becoming desert. Com
mander Lovett- Cameron, of the British
navy, says: II have seen the slaves on
board the Arab dhows, bent double, their
| knees drawn up to their cnin, covered
with wounds and bruises, dying for want
| of food and drink, the dead bound to the
living, and the small pox adding Its ter
rible contagion to the miserles with which
they were overwhelmed"
The demonstrations made on the coast
of Zanzibar by Germany and England
may be regarded as practical answer to
the appeal of Cardinal Lavigerie. 1t is
| probable that the sultan of Ztuzibar, the
chief offeI der in the prosecution of the
slave trade, will be comp PEELED TO give sub
stantial assurances of his intention to
suppress such inhumsn trafic. L. is only
by The arguments Of rifle aad cannon that
| the Arabs can be induced TO give up their
! barbarities. Combined action On the
part of the European powers now eDgag-
ed in establishing colonies in Africa can
alone root out 8 ch disgrace to the civ
Ilization of this age. Their material in
terests, apart from humane considera-
lions, impel them to put stop to the
trs ffic that is fast depopulating their new
possessions. If the markets on the sea
coast be destroy ed, there will be no long
| er any obi ct for the traders in human
| flesh TO pusSue their horrible equations.
| By Selling II inz bar, the Germans will de-
-troy the headquarters of the slave trade,
and it is likely that such is the object of
! the present blockade and expedition.