794 PRIVATE SLAVES. 



armed men, whom they recruit for this purpose from the best 

 of their slaves. Contrary to the policy of the Khartoom ivory- 

 merchants, the Gellahbas have by degrees supplied King Mofio 

 with such a number of firearms, that he is now said to have at 

 his command a force of three hundred fully equipped warriors, 

 a formidable fighting force, with which he seriously threatens 

 any expedition of the Khartoomers that may enter his domin- 

 ions. His store of slaves appears absolutely inexhaustible; year 

 after year his territories go on yielding thousands upon thou- 

 sands, which he obtains either from the slave tribes that he has 

 subjected, or by raids organized against the surrounding nations. 

 The demand for slaves in the Seribas, says Sir Samuel 

 Baker, would alone suffice to support a very flourishing trade. 

 Numerically, the Mohammedan settlers bear a high ratio to 

 the native population, and in some of the western territories, as 

 amongst the Kredy, Golo, and Sehre, they are actually con- 

 siderably in excess of the total number of natives, who only 

 consist of bearers and agricultural laborers. Taken one with 

 another, every Nubian possesses about three slaves ; and thus it 

 may easily be conceived that the computation is not too high 

 that places the total number of private slaves in the country at 

 between fifty thousand and sixty thousand. These private 

 slaves are quite distinct from those that are kept in store and 

 used as merchandise; they may be divided into four categories: 



1 . Boys from seven to ten years of age, who are employed to 

 carry guns and ammunition ; and every Nubian soldier possesses 

 at least one of these juvenile armor-bearers. 



2. The second class includes the greater part of the full-grown 

 natives of the Seribas, who are porters or soldiers as occasion 

 may require. 



3. The third class of private slaves is from the women who 

 are kept in the houses ; who are either " favorites " or drudges, 

 as the whim of their owners may determine, and at best are 

 chattels passed from hand to hand like dollars. 



4. Last are the slaves employed exclusively in husbandry. 

 But passing from the institution as it exists at home under 



the various pretences of government, let us turn our attention 

 to those slaves who are regarded as actual merchandise, and 

 who are dragged into bondage from the Upper Nile landsj 



