Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-28

size the horrors OF slavery, but to illustrate
the Arabs slaver's general policy and his
method of setting to work.
Within twenty miles of the station,
while we were on our march from Nyasss
to Tanganyika, the fertile valley of the Lofu
was the scene OF terrible slave raid An
Arab, Kabunda, who had been settled there
for about ten years, having many houses
and slaves, determined to go to Zanzibar
with his ivory. So he picked quarrel
with Ka imbwe, the chief, and took all his
cattle; then organized a sudden raid
throughout all the valley, and every man,
woman and child who could be found was
seized and tied up. Very few managed to
escape him or his keen hunters, and a cara
van was made up for the coast; but the
smiling valley that had been known as the
Garden of the Tanganyika, from its fertility
and the industry of Its people, now silent
and desolate, was added to that already
long stretch of hungry wilderness through
which we had passed" But this is only
the first act of the drama. With the slave
march to the coast the real tragedy
begins. Here is the procession which
few days afterward filed past Mr.. Moir's
tent:
First came armed men, dancing, gestic-
ulating and throwing about their guns, as
! only Arabs can do, to the sound of drums,
panpipes and other less musical instru.
ments. Then followed slowly and sedately,
| the great man himself, accompanied by his
| brother and other head men, his richly
caparisoned donkey walking along near by;
and surely no greater contrast can be con-
ceived than that between this courteous,
white-robed Arab, with his gold embroidered
| joho, silver sword and daggers, and silken
turban, and the miserable swarm of naked,
| squalld human beings that he had want
Iraar thoir
| in order to enrich himself. Behind the
Arab came groups of wives and household
servants, laughing and talking as they
passed along carrying the camp utensils
| and other impedimenta OF their masters
| After that the main rabble of the caravan,
| the men armed with guns, spears and axes
| Ominously prominent among the loads
were many slave-sticks, to be handy if any
| turned refractory or if any likely stranger
were met. Mingling with, and guarded by
them, came the wretched, overburdened.
| tied up slaves. The men who might still
| have had spirit to try and escape were
| driven, tied two-and-two, in the terrible
| goree or tanning stick, or in gangs of about
! a dozen, each with an iron collar let into a
long iron chain, many, even so soon afIer
the start, staggering under their loads.
| And the women l can hardly trust N.Y.
self to think or speak of them-lhey were
fastened 10 chains or thick bark ropes;
very many, in addition TO their heavy
| weight of grain or ivory carried little
brown babies, dear to their hearts as a
white mans child to his The double bur-
den was almost too much, and still they
struggled wearily on, knowing too well
that when they showed signs of fatigue,
not the slaver's ivory, but the living child
would be torn from them and thrown aside
to die. One poor old woman | could not
help noticing. She was carrying biggish
boy who should have been walking, but
| whose thin, weak legs tai evidently given
way; she was tottering already; ii was the
supreme effort of a mothers love
and all in vain; for the child, easily
recognizable, was brought into camp a
couple of hours later by one of my
hunters, who had found him on the path.
We had bin cared for, but his poor mother
would never know. Already, during the
three days journey from Liendwe, death
had been freeing the captives. II was well
for them; still We could not help shudder-
ing as, in the darkness, we heard the howl
of the hyenas along the track"
According to the usual computation of
travellers, the mortality during the slave
march from the interior to The coast is
set down at fifty per cent. In some cases
it may be less, but in others it is un-
douDtedly more. the difference depend.
ing on climate, the nature of the
! country traversed, and especially the
use to which the slaves are to be put when
they reach their destination. In some
caravans the able-bodied men receive all
| the attention, the slaves being left to
struggle on and live or die as il may be.
In others, the women and children alone
are needed, while the men, as possible
source of danger, are either killed or al
| lowed to escape. In either case the loss of
| life by cruelty, starvation, fatigue or muir
| der, is an element in framing count against
! the slave trade which must be seriously con-
sidered.
No one who understands how human life
is estimated by savage peoples will doubt
the shocking and revolving accounts of
travellers regarding this phase of the traffic;
and no one who knows what an Arabs
heart is made of will make any discount
even for the exaggeration of an orator, as
he listens to the following citation from
speech delivered the other day in London
by Cardinal Layigerie:
"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 tor
ture to them; and on their necks are placed
yokes which attach several of them to-
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
first to halt. Then in order to strike terror
into this miserable mass of human beings,
their conductors, armed with wooden bar
to economize powder, approach those who
appear to be the most exhausted and deal
them terrible blow on the nape of the
neck. The unfortunate victims utter a
cry and fall to the ground in the convul-
sons of death. The terrified troop imme-
diately resumes its march. Terror has i'm
bued even the weakest with new strength
Each time some one breaks down, the same
horrible scene is repeated. At night on
arriving at their halting-place, after the
first days of such life, not less frightful
scene awaits them. The traffickers in
human flesh have acquired by experience
knowledge of how much their victims
can endure. A glance shows them those
who will soon sink from weariness; then,
to economize the scanty food which they
distribute, they pass behind these wretched
beings and fell them with a single blow
Their corpses remain where they fall, when
they are not suspended on the branches of
the neighboring trees; and it is close to
them that their companions are obliged to
eat and to sleep. But what sleep
it may be easily imagined. Among
the young negroes snatched by us from
this hell and restored to liberty, there are
some who, long afterward, wake up every
night, shrieking fearfully. They behold
again, in their dreams, the abominable and
bloody scenes which they have witnessed.
IN this manner the weary tramp continues
sometimes for months. when the caravan
comes from a distance. Their number
diminishes daily. If, goaded by their cruel
sufferings, some attempt to rebel or to es-
cape, their fierce masters cut them down
with their swords, and leave them as they
lie along the road, attached to one another