Blandford Weekly News. — 1889-06-08 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SLAVERY ON THE INCREASE.. Profs.lmo' Henry Drummond, describing in Scribner's Magazine the atrocities of a slave march, says :—" No one who understands how human life is estimated by savage peoples will doubt the shocking and revolting accounts of travellers regarding the traffic. 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 a torture to them; and on their necks are placed yokes winch attach several of them together. They march all day; at night, 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 sufferinge, and the privations have weakened a great many. The women and the aged are the first to halt. Then, in order to strike terror into this miserable mass of human beings, their condoctors, armed with a wooden bar to economise powder, approach those who appear to be the most exhausted, and deal them a terrible blow on the nape of the neck. The unfortunate victims utter a cry, and fall to the ground in the convulsions of death. The terrified troop immediately resumes its march. Each time some one breaks down the Caine horrible scene is repeated. At night, on arriving at their halting-place, after the first days of such a life, a not less frightful scene awaits them. The traffickers in human flesh have acquired by experience a knowledge of how much their victims can endure. A glance shows them those who will aeon Kink from weariness ; then to economise the scanty food which they distribute, they pass behind these wretched beings and fell them with a single blow. The corpses remain where they fall, when they are not suspended on the branches of the neighbouring trees; and it is close to them that their companions are obliged to eat and to sleep. But what sleep! it may easily be imagined." Mr. Drummond declares that the horrors of slavery . are on the increase. These deeds of blood and darkness are no isolaied facte, no iJ.4o .ry misfortunes, no mere passing accidents i: etate. They are samples of a anstained, acoepted, and carefully organised system of cruelty. and murder which pervades and penetrates every corner of this continent. Do not let it be supposed that this horror is over, that this day of tribulation ii. at an end. This horror and this day are not even abating. Slavery is on the increase. Time, civilisation, Christianity are not really touching it. No fact in relation to the slavetrade is more al-palling than this. In a Government Blue-book 11. M. Consul for the Somali Coast reports that "the slave-trade has been very active of late. On the 16th of September (1888), Captain Gissing captured three dhows and brought 204 slaves to Aden.' The consul at Zanzibar writes (September, 1888) to the Marquis of Salisbury :—'There is a marked increase in the slave-traffic carried on under the protection of the French flag.' The coated further states that dhows carrying the French colours were constantly and regularly leaving for the Comoro Islands, Mayotte, and Madagascar, loaded with slaves. In June, 1888, Brigadier-General Hogg, dating from the Aden Residency, wrote to the Bombay Government : I have the hononr to bring to the notice of Government that I have from time to time received reports of the activity of the slave-trade from the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Tajoorra, and I deem it my duty to inform Government of this fact with a view to such action being taken as may be deemed advisable."