Footnote 159:[ (return) ] There was a breed of these goats on the island of Mogodor, kept there by the emperor's orders. This island is the state-prison of the empire.
ON THE STATE OF SLAVERY
IN MUHAMEDAN AFRICA.
The state of slavery in this country is very different from that which is experienced by the unfortunate men who are transported from Africa to work under our Christian brethren in the West India islands. No man, who is sufficiently erudite to read the Koran can be (abd) a slave in a Muhamedan country. It is incumbent on a good mûselman to give such his liberty, that the propagation of the (Deen el Wâsah [160]) mûselman faith, be not impeded. A man who has served his master faithfully [161] seven years, sometimes gets liberated. This liberation, however, is not compulsory; but conscientious mûselmen, of good moral character, often adopt this enlarging system. I have, however, met with many Moors, who, on offering liberty to their slaves, the latter have declined it, preferring to continue in obeisance; a clear proof that their servitude is not very severe. All slaves, without exception, are brought to this country from the various territories of Sudan, by the akkabars, kaffilas, or caravans, that traverse Sahara. They are all pagans or idolaters (from the interior regions). They are worth from ten to twenty dollars at Timbuctoo; and at Marocco and Fas they sell for, from seventy to one hundred dollars. They are received into the Moorish families as domestic servants, and soon forget their idolatrous superstitions, and become (nominally at least) Muhamedans. After which, many learn to read the Koran, and becoming observers of ablution and prostration, often procure their liberation; for if any one should neglect to liberate such a slave, his brethren in Muhamed will urge him to it, as a good and charitable work, becoming a true, mûselman. [162]
Footnote 160:[ (return) ] So called by Muhamedans: literally means the liberal of wide doctrine, alluding to that of the Arabian Prophet.
Footnote 161:[ (return) ] Jeremiah, xxxiv. 14.
Footnote 162:[ (return) ] The etymology of muselman is, a man of peace; from salem, peace.
The man who wrote the letter from Timbuctoo, giving his master at Mogodor an account of Mungo Park, having visited Kabria, which letter I read, and reported its contents on my arrival in England from Mogodor, about the year 1807, to my Lord Moira (now the Marquis of Hastings), to Sir Joseph Banks, and to Sir Charles Morgan, was a liberated negro of Seed el Abes Buhellel, a Fas merchant, whose father had an establishment at Timbuctoo. When Buhellel liberated this negro, he had such confidence in him, that he advanced to him, on his own personal credit, goods to a considerable amount, with which he crossed Sahara, and took them to Timbuctoo for a market. It were to be desired, for the sake of humanity, that our West-India planters would take a lesson on this subject from the Moors, whose conduct, in this particular, is worthy of imitation.