San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-17
THE ARAB SLAVERS.

10 THIS DAY tnere Is an occasional cargo OF
blacks quietly picked up on the African coast
and run up the Red sea, while it is no secret
that hundreds of slaves are marched across
the Soudan country and openly sold on the
north coast. When every other nationality
had been forced to quit the nefarious traffic
in human flesh, the Arabs took hold and for
ten years they defed the power of the ALI
ance When | was first sent out TO the east
coast as a midshipman on H. N. S. Rover,
every Christian nation was assisting to pre-
vent the traffic, but il goes without dispute
that England was the only nation enter
ing heartily into the work. She has done
more on sea and land to break up ownership
in human flesh than all the rest of the world
combined In only one or two instances on
our station did the Rover receive anything
like hearty support from the vessels of other
nations, and in half a score of cases the crews
of merchant vessels gave us information cal
culated to assist our enemies
The Arab craft We're not always COM
manded by Arabs. Renegade Americans,
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and men of other ma
tiOnalities were interested, and it was these
men who gave us the most trouble They
were Old hands in the business, up to all the
tricks and lodges, and they gave us many a
useless chase and played us many a sharp
game The favorite slave craft was the
dhow, of light druught great spread of can
vas easily managed and fast sailer in any
sort of a breeze, but various syndcates had
purchased brigs, schooners and small ships,
and they were flying all sorts of colOrs and
protesting all sorts of occupations. They
came down the east coast from Juba to So
ella a distance OF a thousand miles, measured
by the trend of the coast. For two years
England had only two slave oatchers on this
long line, and it did not require much sharp
ness to get out a contraband cargo.
The mouth of every river on that coast has
from two to five outlets, and many of them
spray out into long inlets and false channels,
traversing miles of swamp or low land, and
twenty cruisers could not have kept the coast
under strict guard. The Rover was a fast
sailing brig, but she should have been a
steamer to carry out the programme laid
| down for her.
One day just as we were ready to sail from
Masimba, after making some needed repairs, !
an American merchantmen came in with !
three blacks aboard. They had been picked |
up off a raft at sea a hundred miles down the
coast. The Yankee captain brought them
aboard and turned them over with the obser :.
vatiOn Il
I'm a-standing neutral on this blackbird
| question, captain. 1t seems wrong to drag
these niggers off and make slaves of 'em, but
our constitution permits slavery. l never
owned one and never shall, but we've got to
have slaves or we can't have cotton and
sugar These poor devils have no doubt got
story to tell. Maybe it will furnish a
pointer for you and maybe it won't. I'm
a-standing neutral as ! said before. IL you'll
can get anything out of them go ahead"
We had two or three Interpreters aboardl
and it wasn't long before we learned that al
brig called the Lion had put in at the mouth
of the Zinga, seventy miles down the coast,t
and was loading a cargo. The three menI
had escaped from a barracoon three milesl
from the coast, reached the water and built
raft. and, although realizing that therel
was not one chance in a hundred for theirl
lives if they drifted out to sea, they took it'll
and had been afuat two days and two nights
when picked up. The brig had not begun to,
load cargo when they escaped Indeed, the
barracoon held only about eighty captiveS,'
while she wanted two hundred or over, ard
it would be four or five days before her COM
pement was ready.
The brig referred to profesSed TO be a mer-
chairman. We had overhauled and boarded
her twice without finding anything suspi-
cious but yet we had been told several times
that she was one of the luckiest crafts in the
slave trade Here was golden opportunity,
and the story of the blacks was hardly COM
peted before the Rover had made sail We
were in luck in carrying a fine breeze with
us for fifty miles down the coast, then we got
cats paws and Gains, a squall or two, and it
was evening of the second day before we
rounded the point and looked into the blight,
at the west side of which was the mouth of
the Zinga. This blight was seven or eight
miles long by varying width, being shaped
like pear, with the large end toward the
sea. We still had light breeze to work I'M
der a4.d a boat was sent ahead to take sound
ings, and we moved up the blight about two
miles Then we anchored to wait for another
day.
About II O'Clock at night the tide began to
run out. and with it came land breeze, but
the latter blew itself out in half an hour and
Just as two boats had been ordered down 10
take their stations where they could intercept
and board the SLAYER if she should come out
She might have completed her cargo and
might not, but having run in under our very
nose, as it were, her crew would be anxious
to get the blacks aboard and be off at the
earliest moment. As the wind died away the
boats were recalled, and half an hour later a
light fog settled down on the water and cir
cumscribed our vision to q distance Of fifty
feet. Orders were given for strict silence
aboard and during the rest Of the night
small boat might have pulled all around us
and heard nothing 10 indicate our presence
When meTning came the men were turned up
I'll a. I. 4 =.