ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.
Half the task is now accomplished. Two great nations have speeded on the work: England in theory, North America in practice. For scores of years the ships of Great Britain cruised about the shores of Africa for the purpose of stopping the export of slaves; but although the outlay was great, the result was small; nevertheless a path was broken for the realisation of the ideas of Wilberforce, for whose noble endeavours the best sympathies of all nations had so long and ardently been enlisted. Finally the civil war broke out in North America, and great and glorious as had been the services rendered by England in the cause of humanity, honour greater and more glorious still was won in long and bloody strife by her brethren beyond the ocean. Now the black man has free footing in all parts of the Western Continent; and in the Eastern, the seed of liberty, sown scarcely ten years back, is already bearing its first fruit on African soil; the export of slaves from the coasts of Guinea, which in the middle of the last century amounted to 100,000 annually, exists no longer, and the shores are enlivened by populous towns, the inhabitants of which are engaged in peaceful traffic; all the work of a few years, and all owing to the happy termination of the American civil war.[92]
Our age is now anxiously awaiting the fulfilment of the great work, but the other half of the task has still to be accomplished; the dark cloud of barbarism still lowers over the innermost regions of Africa, and Egypt, the oldest and richest land of the historical world, has its mission to perform. A great revolution has already begun, and although at present it affects only the surface, there is scarcely any reason to doubt that progress, alike spiritual and humane, will ultimately claim the victory. But the task is gigantic, and no one can be more sensible of this than the traveller who has lingered at any of the sources of the slave-trade. One point there is in which all are unanimous—that from Islamism no help can be expected, and that with Islamism no compact can be made. The second Sura of the Koran begins with the prescription: “To open the way of God, slay all those who would slay you; but be not yourselves the first to commence hostilities, for God loves not sinners; slay them wherever you meet them; drive them away from the spot from which they would drive you, for temptation is worse than a death-blow.” Islamism, the child of the deserts, has everywhere spread desolation, and wherever it has penetrated, deserts have arisen bleak and bare as the rocks of Nubia and Arabia, and under its influence every nation from Morocco to the Isles of Sunda has congealed into a homogeneous mass; inexorably it brings all to one level, remorselessly obliterating all traces of nationality or race.
That Islamism is capable of progress is merely a supposition that has been hatched up from books, and has no foundation; there is likewise nothing to prove that it has fallen to decay; its condition appears to be that of one perpetual childhood. Its votaries are like the germs of vegetation that slumber in the sands of desert valleys; a drop of rain, a mere nothing, may call them to a transitory life; the plants bear their flowers, produce their fruit, then die away, and all becomes once more buried in a long deep sleep.
EGYPTIAN APATHY.
Another question then arises as to whether Mohammedans might be roused to civilisation by adopting Christianity. If a European residing in Egypt were asked whether it would be possible for the people to adopt European customs without forsaking Mohammedanism, he would at once answer in the negative; and if he were further pressed with the inquiry whether there was any prospect of the religion ever changing, his reply would again be that there is not the remotest hope of such an issue. And this opinion would seem to be borne out by what has been experienced in Algiers, where the gentle administration of the French Government, with its “Bureaux Arabes,” has always prevented the colony from becoming rich and populated by Europeans. The European costume is the only one of our civilised institutions that has hitherto been adopted in Egypt, but underneath this external garb there still lurks the old feeling of hatred for the Franks, a feeling which is perceptible only to those who penetrate into their domestic circles.
But whether Egyptian officials wear an Oriental dress or a European dress, their ideas about slavery and the slave-trade are stereotyped; it is the fashion in good society to have a house full of slaves, and their presence is considered indispensable. Now if a man were to keep two, or even three, properly paid servants, and see that they did their duty with order and punctuality, he would be making some advance in civilisation: but now, what is the impression on entering the homes of the rich Egyptians? There, comfortably settled on the divan, sits the master of the house, silent and contemplative, a man of peace and quietness; nothing seems to disturb his composure; all the nobler passions are quite alien to his nature; hunting and fishing, riding and boating, are quite unknown to him, and he never puts himself to the trouble of taking a walk. If he is thirsty, he has only to raise his hand and say, “Ya, wolled” (here, fellow!) and in an instant his slave hands him a glass of water; or if he wants to smoke or to go to sleep, it is “Ya, wolled” just the same: everything is done for him, and he does not stir an inch to help himself. Now supposing some fine day all these “wolleds” were to take themselves off, what would befall these fine gentlemen on their divans, and where would they turn for all the trifling comforts of their daily life? Their sluggish nature would be invaded by a feeling of disquietude that they had never felt before; they must either die or become new creatures. This description, which applies to every rank of life, is only a reflection of the lethargic apathy that prevails in every Oriental State; an inference necessarily follows that of equal importance with the abolition of slavery is the dawn of a new life in the East. If this regeneration is impossible, then slavery is a permanent necessity.
The kind treatment of slaves, and the comfortable lot that they enjoy, in comparison to the hardships of their rude, rough homes, are pleas that have often been urged in extenuation of slavery in the East. It is certainly true that the contrast in slave-labour is very great, and whilst Europeans have looked upon their slaves as little better than useful domestic animals, the Oriental slave is a mere object of luxury. Only a small proportion of the slaves that are brought annually from the interior are employed in field-labour in Egypt, though rather more frequently in the Nubian provinces. The European, although he deprived the negro of his ordinary rights, still compelled him to become a useful member of society; the Oriental allows him a portion of his rights, but trains him up to general incapacity; the occupations of filling pipes, handing water, boiling coffee, and holding a salver, are not employments worthy of a man. Slavery in the East, in spite of its good living and fine clothes, is not at the best a very enviable position; but such as it is, it is purchased by these poor creatures at a heavy price; they have to submit to a long and painful journey across the deserts; they have to suffer the extremest hunger and fatigue, and to be exposed to the contagion of disorders, such as their fresh blood, pure with the simplicity of a life of nature, is especially liable to imbibe, and altogether they are doomed to be subject to hardships so severe as to decimate their ranks.
DEPOPULATION OF AFRICA.
But the worst feature in the case is the depopulation of Africa. I have myself seen whole tracts of country in Dar Ferteet turned into barren, uninhabited wildernesses, simply because all the young girls have been carried out of the country. Turks and Arabs will urge that they are only drawing off useless blood, that if these people are allowed to increase and multiply, they will only turn round and kill one another. But the truth is far otherwise. The time has come when the vast continent of Africa can no longer be dispensed with; it must take its share in the commerce of the world, and this cannot be effected until slavery is abolished. Sooner than the natives should be exterminated, I would see all Turks, Arabs, or whatever else these apathetic nations may be called, vanish from the face of the earth; they are only occupying the place of their betters; and negroes, if they only work, are their betters.