[CHAPTER VII.]
ON SLAVERY.
You must now, dear Reader, bear with, or skip, a chapter on Slavery, upon which Richard was very strong.
Captain Burton's Reports to Lord Granville on Anti-Slavery.
Letter No. 1.
"Cairo, April 27th, 1880.
"My Lord,
Richard's Three Letters to Lord Granville.
"I have the honour to report that during a late excursion to the Natron Lakes, lying north-north-west of Cairo, I came upon the track of a small but vigorous branch of slave traffic which is, I understand, carried on with much suffering to the victims. My companion, Professor William Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen, now returning to England, can give oral information on the subject; whilst Colonel Gordon, late Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces, was perfectly successful in closing to slave-traders the Main Trunk Line—viâ the Nile itself—he could not but throw the transit into two branches, the one east, the other west of the river. On April 11th we engaged a guide of the village of Abu-Rawásh, near the northernmost pyramid, which is the Nilotic terminus of the journey. This man, El Haji Musà, was reticent on the subject of rakik (slaves); not so his son, Abdullah. The traffic was the conversation of the village; and from the youth we learnt that our only risk in a desert march would be that of meeting Arabs driving slaves. The village Ghafèr (a watchman), Mohammed el Zayyàt, is said to assist in smuggling the new arrivals, who are dressed like town slaves; and the Octroi authorities can hardly be ignorant of a traffic which gives such large gains. Whether the Pyramid Arabs are concerned in it or not, I have not as yet ascertained at the Coptic Convent of the Mar-Makarios. I could obtain no information except that the transit had been once active and was now closed. But a second guide, Abd el Alàh, of the Bedawi tribe Beni Salamah, gave a very different account, which confirmed that of the youth Abdullah. The slaves are driven from the land popularly called Wadar, and by the people Bargo, through the line of oases lying west of the Nile. The season is winter, when water holes abound; the summer heats effectually stop it. At Siwah, the Oasis of Amaun, some eighteen marches from Cairo, the rakik are driven to the Natron Lakes. Men, women, children, and babies carried on the shoulder, if they refuse to walk are beaten, and lastly are tied on camels' backs. At the Birket el Birdi, the easternmost of the Natron Lakes, we were shown the sweet-water pools from which they drink, and the places where they are kept to rest and recruit for several days, before being driven into the capital. Finally, in the Syrian convent, I heard that the last convoy of 1880 had passed by their monastery in March. Nothing would be easier than to put a stop to this proceeding, and if your Lordship should wish to know what measures I should propose, I am at all times ready to submit them to your approval.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
"Your obedient servant,
"Richard F. Burton."
Letter No. 2.
"Cairo, May 3rd, 1880.
"My Lord,
"In continuation of my letter, separate—Cairo, April 27, on the revival of slavery throughout Egypt, I have the honour to add the following details. Three villages are connected with the Wadái Sywal slave-trade, namely, Kardási, Abu Rawásh, and the so-called 'Pyramid Arabs.' Of the latter, I heard from the Chevalier de Kremer and H. E. Yacoub Artim Bey, who, two years ago, convicted them of complicity about Kardási.... I was informed by Dr. Grant, of Cairo, and Mr. Hayes, of Alexandria, who, some years ago, came upon the caves where the slaves had to be lodged. The slave importation in Egypt has now assumed an importance which threatens to become scandalous. I need not enter into the polities of this present Egyptian Government, but it is essentially retrograde and strongly opposed to all reforms, especially to the employment of European officials. It has established slave bureaux at Cairo, Alexandria, Santa, and Es Siegrét, but not at the principal place, Assouan (Syene).... These employés send in mere blinds by way of reports; they have no general head, and being under-paid, they cannot refuse the larger inducements offered by the slave-dealers. The scandal which happened at Es-Siyút on April 20, 23, has doubtless been reported to your Lordship, and has found its way into the papers. Of some thousand head, only sixty-seven (thirty-nine girls and twenty-eight boys) were captured; the hundred and fifty slave merchants, with their camels, had the audacity to march upon a point which is not only a slave bureau but a railway station, with telegraph, etc.... Comment on such a proceeding is useless.... When Colonel Gordon, R.E., was compelled to leave Egypt by the retrograde and anti-European party now in office, his employé, Signor Gessi, hung, they say, eight slave-dealers. It was at once reported from Cairo to the Soudan, and throughout the slavery region, that Colonel Gordon had been dismissed for undue severity, and such a report was virtually an exhortation to reopen the slave-trade by destroying the leaders, who commanded bodies composed of from three to four thousand armed men.... All foresaw that his departure would be followed by its reorganization, and yet no steps were taken by the present Egyptian Ministry—they sent up a Governor-General, a certain Rauf Pasha, a Berberin, known only by his cruelties in Harar, where the ruler died under most suspicious circumstances. The Indian trade, though scotched, is by no means killed. Money will be easily raised at Khartum, Cairo, Alexandria, and men will be readily found. The best proof is the scandalous affair of Es-Siyút. I have also heard of a caravan of three hundred head being seen at Karaski on the Nile. Meanwhile the slave-traders, too weak to invade the country, pitch their camp upon the borders of Dar-Wardác and other slaving centres. They buy the captives offered to them, and march them through the oases, and along the Nile, at a part where there are no guards. From the terminus depôt Siwah, slaves are sent to Cairo and Alexandria, and, when these lines are dangerous, through the Oases of Augila to Tunis and Tripoli. There would be no difficulty in controlling this trade. In reducing hundreds to tens, and tens to units, the necessary procedure cannot be taken by a retrograde and a remiss Egyptian Ministry, or by a staff of under-paid employés.
"I have the honour to be.
"Your Lordship's obedient servant,
"R. F. Burton."
Letter No. 3.
"Consulate, Trieste, May 11th, 1880.
"My Lord,
"In my two letters, separate—Cairo, April 27th, and Cairo, May 3rd, which forwarded details of the slave-trade revival in Egypt and of the Wadái-Siwah line, which has temporarily taken the place of the Soudan trade, I neglected to mention another branch—which would require control, chiefly through the Red Sea. This is the Abyssinian, which includes the Galla tribes. The market resembles the Caucasian, especially the Circassian now extinct, in so far as parents sell their children, and relatives their kin. It is a small but constant supply of a high-priced article equally prized in Arabia and in Egypt. It required no apparatus, no expenditure of men and money, and consequently, to suppress it, will be a work of time and well-directed energy. During my return voyage from Alexandria, I met an old acquaintance (Dr. Geo. Reinisch), Professor of Egyptology to the University of Vienna, who with his wife had been living for some months in Abyssinia and the Upper Nile; he gave me all manner of details, and declared that the slave traffic is assuming an importance which it never had in the days of Ismail, the ex-Khedive. His account of it, indeed, is anything but creditable to the present administration of Egypt. Under Nubar Pasha or Sheríf Pasha, instant measures would be taken to abate the scandal, but the actual Ministry is too Moslem and too retrograde to interfere with the so-called patriarchal institution.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
"Your obedient servant,
"R. F. Burton."
Richard F. Burton.
In 1880.
He wrote, besides, a private letter to Lord Granville as follows:—
"The Ministry under Riaz Pasha is doing all it can to abolish Colonel Gordon's fine anti-slavery work for the last six years. They have sent up a certain Rauf Pasha, almost a black, who will have no weight whatever; and the Red Sea will be in a worse state than ever unless some measures are soon taken; and slave-trade is speedily reviving in the Soudan and the Red Sea. The Ministry wishes to drive out all foreigners, and this makes times in Egypt harder than ever.
His Application to be made Slave Commissioner.
"I would like to have a temporary appointment in the Red Sea as Slave Commissioner. I want a salary of from £1600 to £2000 a year (£1600 would do if allowed to keep Trieste on half-pay, £350 per annum), the use of a gun-boat, and a roving commission, independent of the Consul-General of Egypt, but to act in concert with a Consul (such as young Wylde) appointed to the Soudan. It is a thing that has long been talked about as a great want in the Red Sea, if slavery is really to be exterminated, and Gordon's splendid work to be carried out on the coast. Gordon Pasha has long wished to recommend me for this work. As this last appointment would only be temporary—say for a couple of years—I would like to be allowed to keep Trieste to fall back upon when my work is done, and as a home for my wife when she cannot be with me. Other men are allowed to retain their Indian appointments, and still to take temporary service in Egypt: for this there are several precedents. Mr. Brock, the Vice-Consul at Trieste, who is thoroughly reliable, would act for me on half-pay, as he has done the last forty years. I guarantee that, placed in such a position, in two years' time the Red Sea shall be as clear of slaves as if slavery had never existed.
"Richard F. Burton."
"How to deal with the Slave Scandal in Egypt.
"The systematic and official revival of the import slave-trade in Egypt was the necessary consequence of Colonel Gordon's compulsory retirement. The merest sketch of the measures adopted by that energetic English 'Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces' would occupy the whole of this paper. Suffice it to say that, when matters came to a crisis, he attacked the well-armed and well-organized forces of the slave-dealers, sometimes numbering three to four thousand musketeers; and during two years' fighting he defeated them in more than one pitched battle. Thus he stopped the slave-hunting at its head-quarters, with its train of death and desolation. Had he remained in 'Black-land' the moral sense of England would not have been outraged by the horrors brought to light so soon after his departure. But he had routed the slaver without abolishing the slave, nor were his measures calculated to set the latter free.
"Colonel Gordon's work, however, was too 'thorough;' moreover, his strict and honourable rule allowed no plundering and embezzling of 'parasitical Pashas, foreigners in Egypt.' The Khedive (Ismail I.) by a stout-hearted coup d'état had appointed and had unhesitatingly supported his great lieutenant. The Prince's dethronement was a signal for the downfall of the English Governor-General. The former was succeeded (June 26, 1879) by his eldest son, Taufik Pasha, who, however upright and public spirited, was young and inexperienced; and he had nothing to do but to place the helm of State affairs in the hands of a ministry. The President of the Council was Riaz Pasha el-Wázán, whose cognomen shows that he was not of Moslem origin. Rising, as Pashas usually rise, from the very lowest class, he determined to conciliate and gratify his new co-religionists by a retrograde and destructive, an anti-European and pro-Mohammedan policy. He went as far in this matter as he safely could; he gagged the Press in Egypt, and he addressed to the Consulate-General of the United States a complaint that the missionaries were attempting to proselytize Moslems. This Ministry ended (mid-February, 1881) with causing a military émeute at Cairo, a thing absolutely unknown to the annals of the Capital. The movement is ominous, and it will injure the City in the estimation of the winter visitors, even more than did the Dengue-fever bred by its filth.
"Again we must rapidly pass over the nicely graduated slights and insults by which Riaz Pasha compelled Colonel Gordon to send in his resignation early in 1880. But the desired effect was attained. Popular rumour pointed out Colonel Mason, an American staff officer, as Colonel Gordon's successor. This, however, was not to be; L'Egitto farà da se, Egypt for the Egyptians, i.e. Turks. The Kafir and the Giaour must be prepared to depart when no longer required; and Riaz Pasha made no secret of his hopes to see them depart without delay.
"All men of experience in Egypt and elsewhere foresaw what would result from Colonel Gordon's compulsory retirement. Under Sherif Pasha or Nubar Pasha measures would have been taken to prevent the revival of the traffic. The old serpent had been scotched, not slain. Money was easily raised at Khartum, Cairo, and Alexandria. The Riaz Ministry contented itself with spreading a report throughout their unhappy hunting-grounds that Colonel Gordon had been dismissed for undue severity to the Jellabs (slave dealers); and such a rumour acting upon the reaction, the rebound was virtually an exhortation to reopen the trade. A successor was soon found in a man of colour, Rauf Bey (now Rauf Pasha), an officer of Berberine or negro origin, known, but not favourably, for his conquest of Somali-land and for strangling the old Amir of Harar after surrender. He was mentioned by Sir Samuel Baker ('Ismailïa,' i. 286, Appendix, 'Raouf Bey') as the bosom friend of the monster Abu Sa'úd. The new Governor-General of the Soudan acted as all knew he would; and his seal presently appeared upon the Government passage-tickets on board slave-transporting steamers (Anti-Slavery Reporter, November, 1880). These papers were given only to be retaken when no longer wanted as 'blinds.'
"Colonel Gordon's orders were cancelled, and the import slave-trade was energetically revived by the Riaz Ministry. The scandalous scenes in the Desert, on the Nile, and even in the suburbs of Cairo, were known to Europeans as well as to natives. When every Consulate-General received the exactest details, these could hardly have escaped the knowledge of her Britannic Majesty's representative. But, as Colonel Gordon says, 'to the generality of our officials all is more or less rose-coloured.' Whether the cause was a commendable desire not to embarrass a struggling and indebted Government, or a laudable ambition to report what sounds pleasant to authoritative ears, the effect undoubtedly was that the English Government and the public were left in utter ignorance of the scandalous revival. It is time for the world to know how the crime was brought to light. 'Honour to whom honour is due' does not appear to be the rule of the Anti-Slavery Society.[1]
"On April 10, 1880, Professor W. Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen, and I, set out together with the view of visiting the Coptic convents in the Desert about the Natron Lakes to the north-west of Cairo. We were detained three days at the village of Abu-Rawásh, near the northernmost pyramid of that name, by a robbery which called for the intervention of the police. The time was not wasted. The traffic of rakik (chattels) was the common topic of conversation amongst the peasants; and the settlement proved to be one of the Nilotic termini of the transport line. We subsequently ascertained that the so-called 'Pyramid Arabs' and the neighbouring hamlets, especially Kardási, were also connected with it. Kardási, indeed, had been convicted of complicity two years ago by Yacoub Artin Bey. Of course the Octroi employés were well acquainted with a traffic so lucrative.
"The guide El-Haji Musá, engaged at Abu-Rawásh, succeeded in missing the way, and in nearly losing himself, by his desire to prevent the two Englishmen meeting a slave Caravan which was then expected. At the Coptic convent of Már Makárius no information was forthcoming from the monks, except that the once active traffic had been closed. But a second guide, Abd el-Aláh, of the Benú Salamáh Bedouins, gave a very different account, which was confirmed by others. The slaves are driven from the large region, popularly called Dar Wadái, and, by the inhabitants, Bargo. The season is the rainy winter, when the water-holes are full; the summer heats effectually end it. At Siwah (the Oasis of Ammon), some eighteen marches from Cairo, the chattels are driven to the Natron Lakes; men, women, children, and babes in arms forming regular caravans. If the adults refuse to walk, they are beaten; and, as a last resource in sickness, they are tied on camels' backs. At the Birket el Birdi, the easternmost of the Natron Lakes, we were shown the sweet-water pools from which the slave-gangs drink, and the places where they are halted to rest and recruit before being smuggled one by one into the capital. Finally, we heard at the Syrian convent that the last convoy of 1880 had passed in March.
"On returning to Cairo (April 21) I met Dr. Leo Reinisch, Professor of Egyptology to the University of Vienna, who, with his wife, had been living for some months in Abyssinia, and on the Upper Nile. He gave all manner of details, and detailed that the slave-trade was assuming an importance which it never had in the days of the ex-Khedive. His account of it, indeed, was disgraceful to the Riaz Ministry. The slave-traders, no longer organized to invade the country, pitch their zaribahs, or armed camps, upon the borders of the man-hunting lands, Dar-Fur, Kordofan, the Niam-Niam country; Monbuttoland, and the whole valley of the Bahr el Ghazál. In these lands, nominally Egyptian, they buy the kidnapped negroes offered to them, and march them through the oasis, and along the Nile at parts where there are no guards. From the terminus of the main depôt, Siwah, the victims are sent to Cairo and Alexandria, and when these lines are dangerous, they are passed through the Oases of Augila to Tunis and Tripoli. Besides the Soudan, there is another branch, the Habesh or Abyssinian, which includes the Galla tribes and the peoples of Shoa, Gouga, Gurágue, and Godjam, whose chief Ras Adal has made his name infamous. The Habesh market does not include the 'Abid' (negroes proper) from the South and West of Khartum. At Zayla the notorious Governor, Abu Beker,[2] and his fifty sons (the former now charged with the foul murder of M. Lucereau), work the Galla mine to great profit. This trade resembles the almost extinct Caucasian, especially the Circassian, so far that parents and relatives sell their children and kinsfolk. It is a small but constant supply of a high-priced article, equally in demand throughout Arabia and Egypt. It requires no apparatus, no outlay of men and money; and, consequently, to suppress it by closing the main artery, the Red Sea, may be pronounced practically impossible. It can only be destroyed by abolishing the demand.
"Before leaving Cairo, Professor Smith, in a private conversation, recounted to her Majesty's Consul-General, who had never heard of the revival, what he had seen and gathered during his excursion. I reported the new tactics, of which the Foreign Office could know nothing, in three official letters to her Majesty's Government (April 27, May 3 and 11). I proposed what I then considered easy and efficacious means of suppressing this disgrace to humanity. The unmanageable duplicity shown in the after proceedings of the Riaz Ministry, and the adoption of plausible measures which serve only to mislead the public, have, since that time, compelled me to change my views, to expect nothing from compromise and to advocate whole measures.
"Meanwhile the revival throve. In March, 1880, a large slave Caravan had been marched down the Nile; this successful speculation emboldened the Jellábs (slave-dealers) and the local authorities to attempt a second, which became a national scandal. Despite the convention with Great Britain, a large slave Caravan was openly conducted into Assiout (Lycopolis), a town of thirty thousand souls, a railway and telegraph station, the seat of a Christian mission, and actually one of the four slave bureaus. The latter had also been established at Cairo, Alexandria, and Tanta, purposely neglecting Assouan (Syene, at the First Cataract), whence there was a regular slave-line to Cairo. But the whole purpose was to satisfy the Consulate-General, or, as Colonel Gordon has it, to 'act whitewash.' Some such object must always be expected in Egypt when there is no European supervision.
"This insult to the Powers was brought to light by Herr Gottfried Roth, a young Swiss teacher in the admirable mission schools of the United States. He had already heard of the March Caravan of three hundred head having been seen at Korosko on the Nile; and he had been informed that another from El-Fashr was expected at Assiout. He at once (April 20) visited the encampment of a thousand camels pitched in the Desert, near the town, and was assured that the traders had brought natron and ostrich feathers, but no slaves. He returned the same evening, and was offered fifty to sixty head for sale, at fifteen to twenty napoleons each. Next morning he went to Cairo, and laid the case before the English Consul-General (Mr. Malet), who, of course, knew nothing of the matter. The outrage was at once reported to Riaz Pasha and to the Ministry, who, doubtless, were well acquainted with all the details. They affected complete ignorance, and thus confessed to the pleasant position of being indebted for the first news to a foreigner. However, foreseeing trouble, they resolved to act at once, and, alla Turchesca, to counteract as much as possible their own action.
"Herr Roth, knowing that the slave camp contained about three hundred dealers, headed by a notorious Ali, applied for a force to arrest the offenders. Next morning he returned to Assiout with a company of 108 regulars and three pashas, including a certain Doromanli. A cordon was drawn round the camp, with sentinels to prevent its being broken; and sixty-seven starveling slave boys (twenty-eight) and girls (thirty-nine) in filthy rags were found lying on the sand. It was a dreadful sight, which drew tears even from the Egyptians.
"Next morning, at three a.m., Herr Roth led the wretches under military escort to the American Mission, the only safe place. At the same time the town was watched, and the chief streets were occupied by guards, with orders not to pass negroes. The Caravan had brought twelve hundred slaves, and almost all were stowed away in the houses.
"The Kazi (judge) sent with Herr Roth by the Riaz Ministry, then opened proceedings. Had he arrested all the negroes in the camp he would have secured testimony to proceed against the local slave-dealers, of whom many slept in the tents. But that was not his object. By the law of Egypt these men were guilty of theft with manslaughter. He took down the names of thirty-five traders, who swore that the chattels were their wives, children, and servants; and he illegally let the rest go. Herr Roth, despite his protests, was utterly unable to prevent this gross miscarriage of justice. Doromanli Pasha, in the presence of Dr. Hogg, Principal of the American Mission, also examined some of the thirty-five prisoners before several of the most influential men of Assiout. Not a few of those arrested confessed that the negroes had been stolen, but when the witness was asked the name of the buyer, the good Pasha silenced the answerer. Herr Roth, after attending the tribunal for a day and a half, left it in disgust at this gross misconduct in a Government official who, however, was doubtless acting under orders of the Ministry.
"The slaves, when questioned in Arabic by the mission, related harrowing stories of their having been kidnapped. Some were stolen from their hearths and homes; others were forcibly dragged away while tending their cattle—min wara el bahim (from behind the cattle) is the phrase generally used. A young wife was thus torn from her husband, and a lad of eighteen showed upon his neck the marks of the chains in which all were bound.
"To abate so great a scandal as that exposed by Herr Roth, the Governor of Assiout was formally removed; but in Egypt that punishment has the less significance because it generally leads to a better appointment. Nor can underpaid officials, as are all Easterns below a certain grade, fairly be expected to refuse the large inducements, varying from $2 to £2 per head, offered by the slave-dealers. The Jellábs were at once set at liberty by Doromanli Pasha, with free permission to enter the town and to return home when they pleased. Of the slaves, forty-two were 'liberated,' that is, were handed over to the Pashas and Beys of the pro-slavery party: and, as Colonel Gordon remarked, a sale had been better for them. At the request of the British Consul-General some sixty were set free and carried for manumission to the baptizoh (police office). The only result was, that on May 29 a boatload of the wretches was sent down to Cairo, and there disappeared. On May 18, an old slave, who went to the Government for 'papers of liberation,' was put in irons, as the marks on his body proved; he refused to obey the Mudir and declare that he had emigrated of his own accord. In brief, out of the twelve hundred head only three hundred, almost all children, were recovered from the buyers.
"So open and notorious a breach of treaty as that of the Assiout caravan compelled the Ministry to do something. Riaz Pasha abolished in June, 1880, the worthless slave bureaux, whose only work had been to send in more blinds by way of reports, and published in the Moniteur Egyptien (June 9th) a circular letter addressed to eight Mudirs or local governors. It ran as follows, and enabled Mr. Malet to assure his Government that the Riaz Ministry was most earnest and energetic in its measures to put down slavery. His Majesty's Ministers acknowledged the Pasha's good works by sending him a decoration, and retrograde Turkey showed her sympathy by advancing him to the grade of Mushir (Field-Marshal)—
"Lettre-Circulaire.
"'Adressée par S.E. le Ministre de l'Intérieur aux Moudirs de Isneh, Keneh, Djirdjeh, Syout, Beni-Souef, Minieh, Fayoum, Djizeh, et Béhéra, en date du 9 Juin, 1880.
"'Vous n'ignorez pas, Monsieur le Moudir, le degré de l'importance qui s'attache à la suppression de la traite des esclaves, ce commerce étant à la fois contraire aux principes mêmes de l'humanité et aux engagements qui lient le Gouvernement de S.A. le Khédive vis-à-vis du Gouvernement de S.M. Britannique, en vertu de la convention intervenue entre les deux Gouvernements.
"'Pour atteindre ce but, certaines mesures avaient déjà été prises, des instructions rigoureuses avaient même été données à tous les agents de l'Autorité, pour qu'ils eussent à se pénétrer de leur devoir et des mesures qu'ils auraient à prendre dans cette question. Les faits récents, dont l'instruction a démontré qu'il a été possible à quelques djellabs (marchands), arrivant avec des caravanes venues de l'intérieur de l'Afrique, d'amener nombre d'esclaves, et de les introduire dans le territoire du Gouvernement, d'une part, et la négligence des agents de l'Autorité dans cette partie du territoire qui a donné lieu à leur poursuite et condemnation, d'autre part, ont crée pour le Gouvernement l'obligation de prendre des mesures plus grandes et plus efficaces pour supprimer complètement ce honteux trafic, et de renouveler ses instructions, et avertissements à tous ses agents, afin de leur rappeler leurs devoirs et la responsabilité qui en est la conséquence.
"'A cet effet, le Gouvernement vient de créer un service spécial pour supprimer la traite, empêcher l'entrée en Egypte d'aucun esclave, et punir toute personne qui oserait entreprendre un commerce aussi révoltant, et tout agent de l'Autorité qui négligerait de remplir son devoir.
"'Le Gouvernement a confié la direction de ce service à M. le Comte della Sala, sous les ordres duquel l'Autorité a placé un nombre suffisant de soldats et d'agents, et lui a désigné pour siège principal de son service la ville de Syout. La mission du Comte della Sala comprend toutes les provinces et toutes les parties de la Haute-Egypte jusqu'à Djizeh, à l'est et à l'ouest, et depuis Djizeh jusque et y compris la province de Béhéra, à l'ouest du Nil; elle comprend aussi la surveillance et la préservation de toutes les routes et de tous les chemins, de tous les déserts à l'ouest, les limites des oasis intérieurs et extérieurs jusqu'à Mariouette.
"'S.A. le Khédive a donné au Comte della Sala pleins pouvoirs pour l'exécution et l'accomplissement de la charge qui lui est confiée.
"'C'est pour le même effet que je vous adresse cette lettre, Monsieur le Moudir. Vous recevrez plusieurs exemplaires de la convention passée entre le Gouvernement Egyptien et le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté Britannique, ainsi que des règlements qui établissent les obligations des agents de l'Autorité, les mesures à prendre, et les peines bien graves à encourir par toute personne qui entreprendrait ce trafic ignominieux. Ces dispositions serviront de guide à votre conduite et action; vous aurez en outre à les faire publier parmi tous les agents et toutes les communes placés sous votre direction. Vous reconnaîtrez Monsieur le Comte della Sala comme étant le chef unique de ce service, et devant être l'intermédiare entre vous et l'Autorité Supérieure pour tout ce qui concerne ce service. Toutes les correspondances qui s'y rattachent doivent émaner de lui, ou lui être adressées. Vous devez suivre ses ordres et ses prescriptions avec la plus grande exactitude et la plus grande vigilance, et lui prêter immédiatement et sans le moindre retard toutes facilités et assistance quelconque qu'il pourra se trouver dans le cas de vous demander relativement à ce service.'
"Despite this show of indignation and threats of severity, the revival went on merrily. Colonel Gordon had calculated that fifty thousand head annually leave what may now be called Equatorial Egypt to supply the households and harems of Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and other Moslem lands. Of these, some thirty thousand are run across direct to Jeddah, Hodaydeh, and other neighbouring ports with the full consent of the local authorities, who levy a capitation tax of ten piastres. During the April-May of 1880, about three thousand head, at the lowest figure, found a ready market in Egypt. Although open sale was forbidden, and the old slave market has been sold, there are still bagnios in the Moslem quarter of the capital.
"Herr Roth, well knowing that other Caravans were expected, applied for an escort of fifty men to scour the desert oases and borders of the desert, in which the 'captives' were stowed away; he might have set free one thousand or so, but he was refused. And he had an unpleasant correspondence with Baron de King, the French Consul-General, for reporting as one of the most energetic of the slave-dealers at Assiout, a Captain M. Magar Damian, the French Consular Agent. He was charged with trop de zèle, and was told officially, that is, unpleasantly, to mind his own business. However, he did good work by printing a map of the Libyan Desert, showing the five favourite stations for stowaways. These are chiefly the oases of Khargeh (El-Khárijeh, the 'outer') and Dakhleh (El-Dákhilah, the 'inner'), and neither had even a sentinel to stop the traffic. From the latter (in N. lat. 25°) the Caravans pass on to the Faráfarah Oasis and to Assiout, or to El-Bahriyeh and the Siwah Oases.[3] These favourite depôts are now guarded by a fair number of men; and sections of companies with dromedaries are also stationed in the Fazyúm, a notorious slaving province; at Turá, near Cairo, where the fellahs hide their goods in the Mukattam Hills; at Abusír, near Lake Mareotis; at Wardán, to command the line of the Natron Lakes, and at a few other crucial points.
"Despite the Ministerial Circular, slaves poured in. Shortly after mid-May, eighty captives were taken at the Bolák Dakrúr station, on the west of the Nile and within sight of Cairo. They were found to be part of a batch of a hundred and twenty-six; the other forty-six had probably been sent forward and sold. In early June, some six weeks after the Assiout scandal, a third Caravan was reported to be making for that station from Dar-Fur, along the inland highway. When it arrived only thirty men and a hundred and sixty camels were counted: the slavers had heard of the capture and had left their chattels in the desert, some say with cut throats.[4] A fourth body was reported to be camping near one of the oases. About the same time a boat with ten slave-girls left Assiout for Cairo; on June 10, four Circassian girls were sold—one at Alexandria for £100, another at Assiout, and the two remaining at the capital, where they were secured for the highest harems. This branch of white slavery, though much reduced, still continues. In October, 1880, two white girls of eight and twelve years old were sold without opposition at Alexandria, and even on January 4, 1881, four more were landed at that port.
"In June also a Nubian or Abyssinian 'beauty' was bought at the Meydán, or Moslem quarter of Alexandria, for £40 to £50, while two other Nubian girls fetched £12 to £15. This cheapness of an expensive commodity tells its own tale. In fact, the prices have not varied between 1874 and 1880. Nubian boys in the former year fetched from $40 to $60; girls, $45 to $70; and adults, $40 to $100. The relative prices of Abyssinians were $50 to $80, $80 to $150, and $85 to $200. In 1875 the values rose about 15 per cent.; and in 1878 they fell 12 to 18 per cent. In 1879-80 the prices 'ruled firm.'[5]
"To note a few more individual cases. A negro applied to the United States Mission at Assiout for aid in recovering his young wife, who had been cruelly beaten and put in irons by her master. This was the practice of the Bureaux when old slaves legally demanded their liberty. It was also reported to the mission that from forty to fifty slave-girls, driven by a Cairo dealer, were for sale in a yard at El-Farshút, a town three and a half days' march from Assiout. In August a hundred slaves were reported to be kept in the house of the Shaykh-el-Balad (Mayor) of the Khargeh Oasis, who demanded an honorarium of £1 to £2 per head. In October two Nubian girls, belonging to Mustafa Pasha el-Arab, a pensioned officer of Government, having been cruelly beaten, obtained a certificate of freedom from the Police Office, Alexandria; they were, notwithstanding, recovered by their inhuman master, who brought against them the usual unjust accusation of theft. The 'counter-charge' had become a system. Before 1873 an ill-treated slave could generally obtain legal manumission. This humane measure became obsolete under the present retrograde and anti-European Ministry. Slaves have even been punished for calumniating their owners.[6] No more need be said concerning individual sales: these pages could be filled with such cases; but their object is to take a broader view of the subject.
"To return to the Riaz Circular. In May, 1880, Mr. John Scott, the learned and upright judge of the Supreme Court, Alexandria, had proposed to Mr. Malet and Major Baring to appoint an English chief for the 'Service of the Suppression of the Slave-trade,' newly organized to take the place of the absurd 'Bureaux.' But the department was to be made inefficient. There are three great trunk roads for slave importation—the Nile, the Western Desert, and the Red Sea. The superintendent should have had charge of all three, with assistants at Maritime Masáwwah and Suakin; and at Assouan and Khartoum, on the Nile line, he should have been provided with steamers on both waters, with a roving commission to visit all the ports, and powers to establish slave approvers. In fact, he should have been enabled to organize suppression, or at least repression. There are sundry of our countrymen perfectly fitted for the post, notably Dr. Lowe, now Sanitary Inspector at Alexandria, who served under Colonel Gordon, and who is well acquainted with Upper Egypt and the Soudan. But Mr. Malet was too cosmopolitan, too 'Anglophobie,' to prefer a compatriot, and he chose for nominee Count della Sala, a 'man of independent position, with his heart in the business.' Possibly the hope was quieta non movere, and to see work done, but without publicity or severity. A certain Ali Riaz Pasha was made Governor-General of the Egyptian Coast of the Red Sea, where the Port of Suakin had become notorious for shipping slaves.[7] The Commissioner's appointment was worth having, thirty thousand francs a year and the rank of Pasha (Major-General), under ten months' service. Count della Sala was supplied with an aide-de-camp, Colonel Turneisen, and a secretary, Dr. Dutrieux. This Belgian physician, who had travelled with the Belgian exploring expedition to Central Africa, presently left the 'service,' apparently because its operations were too restricted.[8] An agency was also offered to Herr Roth; the pay was 200 francs a month; but it was to be a secret, and the agent was to bind himself not to correspond with the newspapers, nor to write upon subjects connected with the slave. The young Swiss's honesty refused the attempt to silence him. The new department, whose range was limited by Alexandria and Assouan, doubtless, was intended to show good; but it has done more than the intended good. Another mere sop as to foreign Powers, it has proved that no such half-measures are of the slightest use. When the highest native dignitaries support the abuse, which has the active sympathies of the public, and where foreign officials, with a few exceptions, know nothing of the people, and are almost indifferent to the existence of slavery, there can be but one way of abating the nuisance.
"Though appointed early in June, Count della Sala contented himself with preparations till August. He then left Cairo for Assiout; and, in early September, found himself at Assouan, the southernmost point of his beat. With his escort of four hundred infantry and sixty cavalry, and acting with energy and discretion, he had little difficulty in temporarily closing the line of the Nile. But all foresaw the effect of that proceeding, which merely diverted the traffic to the Red Sea. The Jellábs must have laughed consumedly at the naïve simplicity of Europeans, so strong in arms, so weak in wits. The result was, despite the new 'service,' an immense increase of activity in the slave-trade. Count della Sala complained (November 19th) to Riaz Pasha that his work had been misreported. The Berberine Governor-General of the Soudan declared that the 'slave-trade was to-day unknown on the coasts of Red Sea,' and the Ministerial newspapers (Moniteur, Egyptien, etc.) assumed a tone of offended dignity. 'What right have people to complain when Egypt was never so active in the suppression of slavery, when we are spending £14,000 a year!' True, but notwithstanding the import notably increased, and people will look at results. To the boast that six hundred slaves (a mere handful) had been liberated, it asked how many slavers had been arrested en flagrant délit and hanged. It had a right to show surprise when the answer was 'none.'
"Thus we can perfectly appreciate the value of the following supplementary circular of July, 1880:—
"'Ministère de l'Intérieur.
"'Lettre-Circulaire adressée à tous les Moudirs.
"Malgré les mesures rigoureuses, prises en vu d'empêcher la traité, et en dépit des peines prescrites à l'égard des Djellabes (marchands) qui osent encore se livrer à ce trafic, ces derniers ne reculent pas devant l'entreprise d'amener des personnes en qualité d'esclaves.
"'Il est incontestable que les Djellabes ne continuent ce commerce que par ce qu'ils trouvent des acquéreurs qui achètent leur marchandise et qui entretiennent ainsi à leur profit une ressource de bénéfices considérables. Il est élémentaire, en effet, que faute d'acheteurs les Djellabes auraient depuis longtemps abandonné ce commerce, et comme conséquence le Gouvernement ne se serait plus trouvé dans la nécessité de surmonter bien des difficultés et de supporter tant de dépenses. On aurait évité aussi l'application des peines graves qui atteignent plusiers des Djellabes et autres dans le but de supprimer complètement la traite.
"'En conséquence, et considérant qu'aux termes de la convention intervenue entre le Gouvernement du Khédive et le Gouvernement de S.M. Britannique toute personne qui prendrait part à la traite des individus amenés dans les conditions précitées est considérée comme complice du Djellabe au double point de vue du crime et de la peine qu'il entraîne, il a été jugé nécessaire d'avertir que toute personne qui achèterait des esclaves amenés et vendus frauduleusement par les Djellabes, est soumise aux mêmes peines qui frappent ces derniers, en vertu du règlement relatif à la suppression de la traite.
"'Le présent avertissement est donné au public afin qu'il soit connu de tous, que toute personne qui s'exposerait à commettre le crime ci-dessus signalé s'attirerait elle-même l'application de le même peine prescrite à rencontre des Djellabes.
"Le Ministre de l'Intérieur,
"'(Signé) Riaz.
"'Caire, 31 Juillet, 1880.'
"The moment the Chief of the 'service' returned to Cairo the slave import again distributed itself between the Red Sea and the Nile. The Riaz Ministry, however, did not fail to make the most of the temporary shift. A German employé, Giegler Pasha, Deputy-Governor of the Soudan, a lieutenant of Rauf the Berberine, and ipsis Muslimis Muslimior, was put forward to romance for the benefit of his adopted country. Accordingly, he wrote to the official journal of Cairo (October 11th) emphatically denying that the traffic of slaves had increased in the Soudan since the departure of Colonel Gordon. He denounced such attacks as 'unjust and ignoble, and offensive to truth;' and he ended by a personal attack on Dr. Lowe, an officer universally respected. At Khartum itself the trade, it is true, has been extinct; at least, slave Caravans are no longer marched there, and Herr Giegler had not visited the unhappy hunting-grounds since 1876.
"But this German official's assertions were utterly opposed to fact. Schweinfurth, of 'The Heart of Africa,' who had lately reported the murder of King Munga, of Monbutto, by Yusuf Pasha, Mudir of Senár, forwarded (November 11th) a report from Herr Richard Buchta, a young Austrian, who had lived three years (1878-80) in the valley of the Bahr el-Ghazal, and in Mtesa-land, working as a photographic artist. He named seven Mudirs engaged in shipping slaves, one of them receiving two dollars a head: he accused the Captains and crews of the Government steamers of the White Nile as implicated in the trade; he forwarded a list of prices paid for 'chattels' ($50 to $200); he reported meeting a Caravan of a hundred head at Metemma, in June, 1880, and he declared that negroes were shipped for Jeddah with passage tickets granted at the Government office, Khartum (Anti-Slavery Reporter, November, 1880). His statements were confirmed by a letter (September 21st) to La Finanza, an Italo-Egyptian paper, by Messrs. Wilson and Felkin, who had travelled from Uganda, and found the trade thriving in Kordofan, Dar-Fur, and other Egyptian provinces of Equatorial Africa.
"The utter failure of the 'Service for the Suppression of Slavery' bore fruit in Egypt. Conceding that the Government was disposed seriously to carry out the provisions of the Anglo-Egyptian Convention, sensible men found that this instrument, despite its apparent stringency, abounds in faults and omissions. There is no need to quote the text in extenso; it is given in that popular publication the Anti-Slavery Reporter (November 1st, 1877), and in the official collections of such documents, dated August 4th, 1877. It was signed by Cherif Pasha, one of the most straightforward statesmen known to this part of the world; and it was followed by a decree of the ex-Khedive, Ismail, on the 17th of the same month.
"Briefly to note the defects of the seven Articles. No. I makes all public trading in slaves, negroes, and Abyssinians, illegal, vaguely punishable by law. Good; but also Article II., which condemns slavers guilty of vol avec meutre, and would punish the Jellábs as murderers, is so severe that it defeats its own object. Article III. promises well in favour of released slaves, who, it gratuitously assumes, cannot be returned to their homes; but does not specify the measures. Article IV. pursues as murderers all 'mutilators' of, and 'traffickers' in, children; the former would be justly punished; but the latter would escape. Article V. refers to a special ordinance concerning slave traffic in the Egyptian dominions. Article VI. concedes the right of search, but allows an open door of escape for slaving vessels; and, finally, Article VII. fixes the date when the Convention shall become operative. Annex A. establishes a special slave department at Alexandria and Cairo to carry out the Convention. Of this mere 'blind' sufficient has already been said. A supplement of four articles prohibits private sale and transfer of black slaves from family to family, after seven years (1884) in Egypt proper and twelve years (1889) in the Soudan. This measure should have been made immediate under pain of fine and imprisonment; the custom has long been the favourite excuse and subterfuge for the import trade; and now, while wholesale is forbidden, retail is permitted. Lastly, the supplementary article, No. III., abolishes the traffic in white slaves (i.e. Circassians), male and female, after the expiration of seven years (1884). Here again is another undoubted error of judgment; the white 'chattel,' a mere article of luxury and luxure, should have been made at once contraband.
"Nor was Colonel Gordon's scheme for the suppression of slavery less criticized. That energetic officer again proposed (Anti-Slavery Reporter, p. 120, November, 1880) a permanent Consul at Suakin, the great outlet of North-eastern Africa; a Vice-Consulate at Masáwwah, and a Consul-General for the Soudan, with a roving commission, and head-quarters at malarious Khartum. He would also—(1) register existing slaves; (2) proclaim that non-registered slaves are free; and (2) forbid Arabs passing into the Bahr el-Ghazal basin without passport or guarantee that the travellers will not buy slaves. The same precaution was to be taken for Dar-Fur, 'of whose population at least two-thirds has been carried away into slavery.' But Consuls are not dictators—they may be useful in reporting, but they cannot put down the scandal. In fact, all these measures are mere palliatives when humanity calls aloud for a cure. We must strike at the fons et origo mali.
"In this conviction I addressed my Government (February 7th, 1881) a letter upon the detestable traffic in eunuchs. All forms of slavery are as contrary to the spirit of El-Islam as to that of Christianity, but Mohammed especially forbade the employment of unsexed men, lest a demand be thereby created (Hidayah, vol. iv. p. 121). Article IV. of the Anglo-Egyptian Convention rightly punishes the offence with death; and no one would regret to see the murderer hanged when a boy dies under the mutilating razor. Yet it is calculated that not less than eight thousand of these unfortunates are annually imported into Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. As a rule, the 'Tawashi' are now an obsolete article of luxury, used to sit at the doors of wealthy Beys and Pashas, and to escort 'Harems' when driving out.
"The foci of the supply are the Soudan, Nubia, Abyssinia, Kordofan, and Dar-Fur, especially the Messalmiyeh district. One of the frontier towns is called Towasheh (eunuchs), from the infamous traffic there conducted by Moslem 'Fakih,' or religious teachers.[9] Many are emasculated in the district between Majarah, or Majarash, and the port of Masáwwah. There are also shambles at Mbadr, near the harbour of Tajurrah, where Yusuf Bey, the Governor, last year unsexed some forty boys, including the brother of a hostile African Chief. All these places are now Egyptian.
"The nature of the subject forbids details in pages intended for the public eye; but, in communicating with my Government, I have been as explicit as decency permits, and my description makes the blood run cold. The subjects range between four and ten; if this operation be performed on older boys, they seldom survive. At the age of ten the loss may be seventy per cent., and even in the case of younger children about one-fourth, to state a low figure, die from the razor. By this murderous operation, boys who would fetch from £5 to £10 rise in value to £25 and £80. Here, then, the manumission might well begin. All eunuchs should be set free without compensation to the owners, who have broken the Commandments of their own Lawgiver by purchasing them; and the extreme penalty of the Convention should be carried out in the cases of notorious mutilators, who have slain literally their hundreds.[10]
"The foregoing pages prove, if they prove anything, that the Egyptian Government has done what it could, in fact what we may characterize as its best, and has failed; that when the course of slave importation is blocked upon the Nile, or the desert, it shifts to the Red Sea, or vice versâ; that the stowing away of 'chattels' in the various oases greatly increases their miseries; and that the numbers imported and the prices ruling in 1880 do not materially differ from those of 1873.
"The abolition of slavery is unpopular amongst the mass of Egyptians, whose prejudices in its favour are often charged upon their faith. On the contrary, Mohammed went as far as any innovator could go, in attacking a national custom of immemorial origin. He nowhere speaks of a legitimate source of slavery, except those taken captive in war, men who would otherwise be put to death; and, even in this case, he enjoins their being set free on payment of a fair ransom. 'You all come one from another and from Adam, the common father,' he exclaims. In one place he enjoins that alms-giving should buy the freedom of slaves; in another he expressly commands, 'Show kindness to your slaves;' and in another (Korán, chap, xxiv.) he says, 'If any one of your slaves asks from you his freedom, give it to him, if you judge him worthy of it; give them a little of the goods which Allah granted you.'[11] And it may be noted that amongst Moslems of all sects the name of Jelláb, the 'seller of men,' is synonymous with infamy.
"Egypt has now reached that grade of civilization when she can afford to dispense with the corvée (forced labour) and with every form of slavery. All Egyptians know that the slave mostly leads an idle and useless life; and that reduced cultivation reduces revenue. All right-thinking Egyptians will rejoice to see the pauper freeman employed, instead of the rich man's slave, to see honest labour relieved from the curse of servile competition. But there must be pressure from without. The present state of things is unfair to all. It is unfair to the Prince, whose humanity revolts against the institution, but who cannot abolish it single-handed. It is unfair to the Government, which is impotent, and will be impotent in presence of public prejudice. It is unfair to the Jelláb, who is legally doomed to death, and socially encouraged by large profits to persist in his organized murders. And I need scarcely say that it is unfair to the slave, whose hard lot is made harder by the impotent attempts to 'suppress' him. Briefly, there is no possibility of arresting the supply except by cutting off the demand. It was the same in Western Africa, where the whole British fleet, much less a 'Coffin Squadron,' could not have barred the Middle Passage, had not the Southern United States, Brazil, and finally Cuba, refused to buy. Hence, for the last decade, not a slave has left the Western Coast, and we now keep a cruiser or two where, in 1865, we had sixteen.
"It is certain—and let the reader duly weigh the fact—that the blow must come from Head-quarters in the shape of an immediate and absolute manumission of slaves domestic and prædial in every part of Egypt. The 'international supervision,' an idea lately ventilated, could do no good. The proposed registration of slaves will prove a snare and a delusion. We must not salve the core that wants the knife. A decree abolishing the legal status of slavery would be a grand and generous policy, spontaneously anticipating the period when the public opinion of Europe will enforce the measure. Such a decree would meet with universal favour, not only in England, which has ever denounced this blasphemy against humanity, and in France, whose several Republican Governments have always been inspired with the noblest sentiments upon the subject of freeing the slave; it would be applauded throughout the Civilized World.
"Nor would this decree entail, as it appears at first sight, a formal interference with the rights of property, even conceding to man the right to hold property in man. The proclamation would not cause the good slave-master to lose his 'chattels.' The cruel and the niggardly would lose them, and would deserve their losses. At the same time, if judged advisable to follow the example of 1834, the owners might receive a certain indemnity for slaves purchased before 1877; and a small loan would easily be raised for the purpose. Grants of land, free of taxation for some years, might be given to the industrious liberti who wish to remain in Egypt; the others might be established in colonies at Bogos and the many healthy sites near the highlands of Abyssinia. But these are mere details. The essential point is a decree for general and absolute manumission.
"And when humanity is satisfied by setting men free, it is to be hoped that Egypt will do something towards the prevention of cruelty to animals. The Egyptian is not brutal; his is the thoughtless cruelty of the child, who cannot realize the fact that beasts suffer like himself. Such is the force of custom that a donkey boy rarely passes a donkey in the street without dealing a cut of the jeríd, or palm stick. There have been various abortive attempts to organize protective measures; but without the active co-operation of the native authorities none can succeed, and the retrograde Ministry of Riaz Pasha has proved a stumbling-block in the way of all improvement.
"Financially speaking, Egypt is now on the path of Progress. Let her show herself worthy of the good fortune that awaits her, and of her high destinies as a civilizing Power in the barbarous regions of the 'Dark Continent.' Let her gratify the World, and secure for herself the blessings of all good men by a decree abolishing utterly and for ever the sale of human beings—the 'league with death and covenant with hell.'
"Richard F. Burton."