SLAVES AT ZANZIBAR. 



371 



verse the interior without an escort of slave-musketeers. 

 They never part with their weapons, even when passing 

 from house to house, holding that their lives depend 

 upon their arms ; they beg, borrow, or steal powder 

 and ball ; in fact they are seldom found unready. 

 They will carry ' nothing but the lightest gear, the 

 master's writing-case, bed, or praying-mat ; to load 

 them heavily would be to ensure desertion. Contrary 

 to the practice of the free porter, they invariably steal 

 when they run away ; they are also troublesome about 

 food, and they presume* upon their weapons to take 

 liberties with the liquor and the women of the heathen. 



The imported slaves again are of two different classes. 

 Children are preferred to adults ; they are Islamised and 

 educated so as to resemble the Muwallid, though they 

 are even somewhat less tame. Full-grown serfs are 

 bought for predial purposes ; they continue indocile, and 

 alter little by domestication. When not used by the 

 master they are left to plunder or to let themselves out 

 for food and raiment, and when dead they are cast into 

 the sea or into the nearest pit. These men are the 

 scourge of society ; no one is safe from their violence ; 

 and to preserve a garden or an orchard from the depre- 

 dations of the half-starved wretches, a guard of muske- 

 teers would be required. They are never armed, yet, 

 as has been recounted, they have caused at Zanzibar 

 servile wars, deadly and lasting as those of ancient 

 Rome. 



Arabs declare that the barbarians are improved by 

 captivity — a partial theory open to doubt. The servum 

 pecus retain in thraldom that wildness and obstinacy 

 which distinguish the people and the lower animals of 

 their native lands ; they are trapped, but not tamed ; 

 they become captives, but not civilised. However 



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