i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 



right under international law which the Ready s boat 

 exercised in calling on the native boat to stop. As to 

 the matter of fact that slaves are still landed in Jeddah, 

 I may mention that within the last few days several 

 bills of sale were brought to the Dutch Consul. And it 

 is only the other day that the head of the Jeddah boat 

 men was summoned to Mecca to answer a charge of 

 slave-trading. Some time ago a boat belonging to this 

 man was seized as a slaver by the authorities of Sawakin, 

 and confiscated. He asserted that it was not a slaver, 

 and put in before the Turkish authorities of Jeddah a 

 claim to have it back, and also to receive blood-money 

 for one of his men whom he declared to have been killed 

 in the affray when the boat was captured. The Oaim 

 Maqarn at first refused to interfere, but having received 

 a bribe of fifty dollars, he consented to take up the case 

 and put in a claim on the Egyptian authorities. Unluckily 

 for his client, the latter had another boat lying near 

 Sawakin, and the captain and another man got drunk 

 in the town. The captain let out the secret that he was 

 engaged in the slave traffic, and the other admitted that 

 he was the person supposed to have been shot, for whom 

 blood-money was claimed. This was too much. The 

 Egyptians made a formal complaint to the Hejaz 

 authorities, who must now take the matter up. But I 

 fancy that it will not end very seriously for the culprit ; 

 indeed, if he is a clever man, he ought to be able, after 

 the fashion of the country, to make the affair turn to 

 his advantage. In this case, it will be observed that 

 the Turkish Governor of Jeddah is compromised. That 

 he received a bribe is certain. An English gentleman 

 of my acquaintance learned the fact from the lips of the 

 man who paid the money. Nor is it at all surprising 

 that Turkish officials should be interested, directly or 

 indirectly, in the slave trade. A case in point occurred 

 the other day at Hodeida, where the quarantine doctor 

 vainly reported a slave-boat, the chief of the police being 



