Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-28
Slavery in Africa.

Slavery N Africa.
Reprinted, by permission, from the pages OF
Scribner's Magazine, June, 1889.
The closing years of the nineteenth GEN.
tury will present to the future moral phe-
nomsnon unique in history, the rise of a
great, unselfish international movement for
the abolition of single wrong-a wrong
which endangers no international interests,
which affects personally none of those en-
gagged in crushing it, which is dealt with
purely on the ground of humanity and
Christianity. The greater Governments OF
Europe are Just now combined in forming,
not the usual defensive alliance to enrich
themselves or diminish the risks of war to
those they love and guard, but an offensive
alliance to save the land of a stranger who
has no claim but his utter helplessness.
And what is of greater significance STILL the
Roman Catholic and the Protestant
Churches have met for once on common
ground, and find themselves fighting side
by side for the redemption of a country be.
yond the pale of either. When before did
the nations of the world direct their poli-
tics, without the desire of acquisition, 10 a
people which was not even nation, or the
ecclesiastics devote themselves, without the
hope of a proselyte, to land without a
church?
u speCldClc Vi LIiS observes
more than passing notice, and | shall try
in the following pages to present birds
eye view of the movement, the nature of
the evil against which it is directed, and
the steps that are beng taken for its
remedy.
Notwithstanding the recent influx of ex-
plorers, Africa is still almost an unexplored
land. Its condition is really known only
by what geologist would call sections
lines of survey, struck at several widely
different points, with cross sections here
and there connecting them and it is only
by inference from these great trayel-routes
that the moral and civil structure of the
country can be Eisde out. But, from the
fatal unanimity upon one or two cardinal
points among the various observers, and
from the constant corroboration of their
facts by fresh explorers, there is but too
much reason to fear that these sections are
typical of the whole, and that the darkness
of the Dark Continent must be held to be
unrelieyed at no single spot. A very brief
citation, therefore, of one or two of the
more important witnesses will place the
facts before the imagination ii all their
lurid truth and darkness.
A few years ago the we'll known German
explorer. Captain Wissmann, found him
self within q few degrees of the equator,
in the heart of Af.ica. 1t was
region of great beauty and fertility,
with forests and rivers, and great and
many-peopled towns. The inhabitants
were quiet and peaceable, and lived life
of artless simplicity and happiness. For
generations they had been established
there; they grew many fruits in their gar
dehs, and excelled in the manufacture of
cloth, pottery, ironware and wood-carving.
No Arab slayer had ever visited this coun-
try. Within its borders the very report of
gun had never once been heard. But as
the explorer walked among the palm trees
and met the kindly eyes OF the country
people who came to gaze upon the white
man, his heart sank. This Arcadia could
not last. He knew, from what had hav-
pened in adjacent districts, from what hap
pens every day in Africa, that its fate was
sealed.
And the sequel showed too clearly that
his silent prophecy was right. Four years
passed. The same traveller led his caravan
once more across this sylvan country. "As
we approached the villages we wondered
that no one came out to receive us with re-
joicings, that no merry laughter greeted our
ears. We entered the deep shade of the
mighty palms, and to the right and left
were the clearings where our friends had
stood. Tall grass had overgrown all that
formerly gladdened US. The crops were
destroyed; everything was laid waste. The
silence of death breathes over the lofty
of the palms waving in the wind
we enter, and it is in vain we look for the
happy homesteads and happy old scenes.
A cherred pole here and there, few
banana trees, are the only evidences that
man once dwelt here. Bleached skulls by
the roadside, and the skeletons of human
hands attached to poles, tells the story of
what has happened since our last visit"
Some wretched fugitiyes from them sup
piled the missing links in the story.
People with long white shirts and
wearing cloth round there heads (the
Arabs had been their with their
chief, who was called Tippu Tib. He
at first came to trade, then he had
stolen and carried away the women.
Those who had opposed him bad been cut
down or shot, and the greater part of the
natives had fed to the ravines and forests.
The Arabs had remained IN the place in
force, as long as there was any chance of
hunting and finally capturing the fugitives
in the woods What they could not utilize
they had destroyed or set fire to-in word,
everything had been laid waste. They had
passed on. The fugitives had returned to
their former homes, and had endeavored to
to cultivate and renew their fields, and re-
bmid what was possible. After three
months Tippu Tbs hordes had again APP
peared, and the same scenes had been re-
enacted, and again, for third time, three
months later. Famine and the greatest
misery had been thereby produced through
out all the country OF the Beneki. In
Africa the results of famine are found
mostly in the shape of frightful epidemics,
especially smallpox. / was told that
few OF the fugitives had escaped to the
West, but only an imperceptibly small
number in comparison with those thou
sands-I may almost say millions-that /
had found there on my first visit"
These statements told by Wissmann
himself to a meeting at Cologne, in octo-
Der, 1888, might be paralleled by almost
any traveller who has any experience of re-