CHAPTER XLII 



Sir Samuel Baker and the Slave Trade 



UNTIL recently the worst sore in Africa was its horrible traffic 

 in slaves, but, thanks to the efforts of European governments, 

 this evil now no longer flaunts itself before us. What the 

 awful character of this loathsome business was may be gleamed from 

 the following description, penned by one of the first men who endeav- 

 ored to mitigate its horrors: 



"The people for the most part engaged in the nefarious traffic of 

 the White Nile are Syrians, Copts, Turks, Circassians, and some few 

 Europeans. 



"Throughout the Soudan money is exceedingly scarce and the rate 

 of interest exorbitant, varying, according to the securities, from thirty- 

 six to eighty per cent. ; this fact proves general poverty and dishonesty, 

 and acts as a preventive to all improvement. So high and fatal a rate 

 deters all honest enterprise, and the country must lie in ruin under such 

 a system. The wild speculator borrows upon such terms, to rise sud- 

 denly like a rocket, or to fall like its exhausted stick. Thus, honest 

 enterprise being impossible, dishonesty takes the lead, and a successful 

 expedition to the White Nile is supposed to overcome all charges. 

 There are two classes of White Nile traders, the one possessing capital, 

 the other being penniless adventurers ; the same system of operations 

 is pursued by both, but that of the former will be evident from the 

 description of the latter. 



"A man without means forms an expedition, and borrows money 

 for this purpose at one hundred per cent, after this fashion. He agrees 

 to repay the lender in ivory at one-half its market value. Having ob- 

 tained the required sum, he hires several vessels and engages from one 

 hundred to three hundred men, composed of Arabs and runaway vil- 

 lains from distant countries, who have found an asylum from justice 

 in the obscurity of Khartoum. He purchases guns and large quantities 

 of ammunition for his men, together with a few hundred pounds of 



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