798 THE COUNTRY PARALYZED. 



Abyssinia through Gallabat to the Red Sea, and no one sees 

 them but the traveller. In Kordofan, where there is a resident 

 Egyptian Governor, the trade is truly enormous, and there is 

 now as well the slave-trade from Darfoor. Siout, the common 

 termination of the roads, is the only place where this trade can 

 be cut off, and that could only be effected by the heaviest sacri- 

 fices for the commerce of Egypt. The conquest of Darfoor by 

 the Egyptians would consequently be a great step in advance." 

 AV r hether officials are sincere or insincere, the continent is still 

 being robbed of its population, and those who do not become its 

 victims are degraded by the presence of the traffic. The whole 

 country is paralyzed by the curse which it carries. 



The apathetic Turks and Arabs recognize no evil in their 

 trade. What if fifty thousand souls do go into bondage yearly, 

 " who are they?" But the time has come when the vast con- 

 tinent can be no longer dispensed with : it must take its share 

 in the commerce of the world, and this can never be until the 

 slave-trade is put down entirely and forever. 



It interferes with legitimate commerce, desolates the finest 

 districts, cultivates the unholiest passions, and casts a gloomy 

 shadow on all the land. It bars the gates against science 

 and contests the approach of Christianity. Africa cannot rise 

 until this evil is removed. Whatever measures are used for 

 its suppression, the demand must be destroyed, there must 

 be no market. Demand always creates supply: when there 

 is no market for slaves there will be no slave-yokes. The 

 trade is an inseparable adjunct of the institution. The 

 great revolution which has taken place on the question of 

 slavery seems to have a direct bearing on Africa. That 

 question does not seem to be an abstract one. As a matter 

 of fact, slavery is almost as old as the world in which we 

 dwell. There is not a page of history which does not bear its 

 traces, and not a climate nor a people in which it has not made 

 good its hold. It has been thoroughly engrafted in Africa 

 from the earliest times. The earliest mariners found it there, 

 and found a system of kidnapping which extended into the 

 heart of the country. The countries which may chance to be 

 or to have been the possessors of slaves at any given time are not 

 responsible for the existence of the institution. It belongs to 



