The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29

were brought in in droves from all parts
 of the country. Since then the buying and selling of slaves has been stopped, 1 as far as possible, but 1t Is stll carried
 on in many of the provinces, and 1t will be a long time before it can be entirely 1 eradicated. Sixty-seven slave dealers
 were captured last year and tried. Fifty
 eight were convicted and more than 50 re-
 ceived sentences in the penitentiary of
 from one to seven years each.
 What Swiss Boy Did.
 l While 1 was at Assout about 300 miles
 south of Cairo, pr Alexander, the presi- dent of the Training college there, told me how a poor Swiss boy sbroke up the slave trade of upper Egypt. Said he; This incident occurred just before the
 British occupation of some years ago. The boy. whose name was Roth, got the
 idea that 1t was his m.ssion to aid in
 abolishng slavery, and that his field lay In the Sudan. He had no money, but he worked his way to Alexandria, and thence up the Nile to Assiout landing
 here without cent. He applied for
 work at the mission schools, telling us his plans, and we finally arranged that he could teach French. While doing so
 he studied Arabic, and went out through
 the country to learn all he could as to slavery. lie spent his vacations living , with the people, travelling about and visiting the villages It was then con trary to the law to sell slaves in Egypt, but Roth learned that the trade was going on, and that caravans were bringing slaves from the Sudan down here, and that they were then sent to Tunis and Tripol and thence to Constantinople One day he came into the mission and said that big slave caravan was en- camped outside Assiout, and that the men hid their slaves in caves during the day and sold them at night. He begged
 me to go with him to the governor and demand that they be punished. I did go. but was not able to do anything"
 After this.' continued Dr. Alexander Roth despaired somewhat, but said he intended to go to Cairo and get the Eng fish consul general to help him. He did so and convinced the consul general that his story was true. The two went together to Riaz Pasha, who was then foreign minister. and demanded that the sale of slaves be stopped Roth had then the English government behind him, and the Egyptian government had to respect him. They gave him a company of 200 soldiers and told him to go back to As stout and capture the caravan. It was probably their intention to notify the slave dealers in time, so they could get away, but Roth stopped his special train
 outside the town, divided his company into two bands, surrounded the caravan , and took the traders and 67 slaves whom they had with them. He bought the slaves to the mission school and said he wanted me to hold them, as the Egyp- tians would not dare to take them from
 under the American flag.
 Shortly after this there came mes sage from the governor of the province ordering that the slaves be given up. The messengers were backed by soldiers. but nevertheless I refused, saying it was impossible on account of the absence of Dr. Hoge. the superintendent of the mis- sion. The next day Dr. Hoge arrived, and the governor sent for him. He abused him for not giving up the slaves. whereupon Dr. Hoge charged him with wanting to evade the law. and told him that if 'Assiout had any respect for the law or had a governor who was any thing of a man, the caravan would have been already arrested and the owners punished" He then demanded that this be done. and as result the slave deal CTS and slaves were taken to Cairo to l be tried there. The government of Egypt did not dare to whitewash the transa ction. and it was forced to dismiss the governor and punish the slave dealers. Roth was afterward appointed agent of the Egyptian government to keep down the. slave trade He came to the Sudan and carried on his work there in connection with Gordon and Slatin Pasha, and Slatin speaks of him in his book en- titled Fire and Sword in the Sudan. He died while fighting the slave trade