Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/113

 to supply the slave markets of the Levant, of Egypt, Turkey and the East. The one may be called the Christian, the other the Mohammedan Slave Trade. The main difference between the two trades was, that while the Europeans generally bought slaves after they had been captured, the less fastidious Turks captured slaves for themselves. We have been accustomed to interest ourselves so much in the western or Christian slave-trade, that we have paid but little attention to the other. While the one trade has beon legally abolished, the other is carried on as vigorously as ever. A traffic in negroes is at present going on between Negroland and the whole of the East. While it has been declared illegal to carry away a negro from the coast of Guinea, negroes are bought and sold daily in the public slave markets of Cairo and Constantinople.

When Dr. Madden, of England, went to Egypt in 1840, as the bearer of a letter from the Anti-Slavery Convention to Mohammed AH, the ruler of Egypt, congratulating him upon his having issued an order abolishing the slave hunts, to his great surprise, he found that the order, though issued, had never been enforced, and probably never would be. The truth is, that Mohammed himself had brought the system of hunting slaves to a high degree of perfection. Nubia was his principal hunting ground, into which he permitted no intruder. His own expeditions were conducted on a grand scale; and generally took place after the rainy season. From Dr. Madden's work, we extract a description of these slave hunts: "The capturing expedition consists of from 1000 to 2000 regular foot soldiers; from 400 to 800 mounted Bedouins, armed with guns and pistols; from 300 to 500 militia, half-naked savages on dromedaries, armed with spears, and 1000 more on foot, armed with small lances. As soon as everything is ready, the march begins. They usually take from two to four field-pieces, and only sufficient bread for the first eight days. They take by force on the route such oxen, sheep, and other cattle as they may need, making no reparation and listening to no complaints, as the governor himself is present.

As soon as they arrive at the nearest mountains in Nubia, the inhabitants are asked to give the appointed number of slaves as their customary tribute. This is usually done with readiness, as they are well aware that by an obstinate refusal, they expose themselves to far greater sufferings. If the slaves are given without resistance, the inhabitants of that mountain are preserved from the horrors of an open attack; but as the food of the soldiers begins to fail about that time, the poor people are obliged to procure the necessary provisions as well as the specified number of slaves, and the Turks do not consider whether the harvest has been good or bad. All that is not freely given, the soldiers take by force. Like so many bloodhounds, they know how to discover the hidden stores, and frequently leave these unfortunate people scarcely a loaf for the next day. They then proceed on to the more distant mountains: here they consider themselves to be in the land of an enemy; they encamp near the mountain which they intend to take by storm the following day, or immediately, if it is practicable. But before the attack commences, they endeavor to settle