596 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



himself owner, or part owner. The higher officials some 

 times make a show of zeal. The recently appointed 

 Waly of the Hejaz, among several minor improvements 

 with which he thought proper to signalise his arrival, 

 directed one or two guard-houses to be built along the 

 coast to prevent slave traffic, but, as a matter of course, 

 no practical result has flowed from this step. The Waly s 

 zeal could not in the course of nature last more than a 

 month or two ; and the new functionary is now entirely 

 absorbed in schemes to fill his pocket, especially by mani 

 pulation of the grain supplies sent from the Persian Gulf 

 to feed the Bedouins. But it is no use to grumble at the 

 Turks. So long as slavery is legal, the slave trade must 

 be winked at. The radical cure is to abolish slavery 

 itself. Meantime, it is worthy of notice that the illegal 

 traffic is said to be gravitating towards Hodeida, where 

 there is less risk of European interference, and from 

 which, as I have already observed, small parties of slaves 

 are forwarded by coasters without suspicion. 



There is yet another secret in the slave traffic which 

 ought to stir our nation to the promptest and most decided 

 action. A regular business is done by scoundrels who 

 kidnap little boys and girls from our Indian possessions, 

 and bring them to Mecca generally under cover of 

 business connected with pilgrimage where they are 

 sold as slaves. Cases of this sort have repeatedly been 

 brought to light by boys who have escaped to Jeddah. 

 One such discovery took place this winter (1881). A boy 

 from Hyderabad escaped and reported to the Consul at 

 Jeddah that his sister was still in bondage. The Consular 

 dragoman, a Jew, who has adopted Islam, and can there 

 fore visit Mecca, was sent up ; but he reported that the 

 girl had been married and was content. The case was 

 accordingly dropped, but the fact that one victim is 

 reported content with her fate does not make the traffic 

 less infamous. The energetic and able Dutch Consul 

 has followed out the line of inquiry suggested by these 



