HEROES OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 100, 5 August 1910, Page 7

HEROES OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

AN AFRICAN TRAVELLER'S STORY. Mr. Alfred J. Swann, late senior Reesident Magistrate of the Nyassaland Protectorate, has writeen a graphic- J story of "Fighting the Slave Hunters in 1 Csntral Africa." It is a record of 26 c: years of travel and adventure round the © Great Lakes, and of the overthrow of n iTip-pu-Tib, and other great slave-raiders. J Many of the details are horrible enough; J happily they describe what has been de- i] stroyed, though much preventive work A remains to be done. We quote from a g chapter describing the cruelties of the ~R slave trade. It is dated 1882: B On November 29 we arrived at A M'pwapwa, where the main portion of the party had encamped. Situated on I the outskirts of the Ugogo plains and a •forests, the neighborhood had become a u convenient halting place for all the slave y caravans en route to the coast. n Here we met the notorious Tip-pu- 11 Tib's annual caravan, which had been b resting after the long march through d Ugogo, arid the hot passes of Chunyo. p As they filed past we noticed many »< chained together by the neck. Others a had their necks, fastened into the, forks t» of poles about 6ft long, the. ends of c< wJiich were supported by the men who p, preceded them. The women, who were t< as numerous as the men, carried babies h on their backs in addition to a tusk of o: ivory or t other burden on their heads, o They looked at us with suspicion and c< fear, -having been told, as we subsequently ascertained, that white men always desired to release slaves in order to eat their flesh, like the Upper Congo cannibals. ..■■•■ 0] <lt is difficult adequately to describe g] the filthy state of their bodies; -in maiiy y instances, .not .only scarred by the cut a of a "chikote" (a piece of hide used to w enforce obedience), but feet and shoulders were a mass of open sores,, made a more, painful by the swarms of flies f< which followed the march and lived on tl the flowing blood. They presented a . moving picture of utter misery, and one R could not help wondering how many, of $ them had survived the long tramp from it the Upper Congo, at least 1000 miles pi distant. Ouk own inconveniences sank yy into insignificance compared with the pi suffering of this crowd of half-starved, ft ill-treated creatures who; weary and B friendless, must have.longed for death. yv The headmen in charge were most po- Q , lite to us as they passed our camp. Each tl was armed- with rifle, knife and spear,, and although decently clothed in clean y cotton garments, they presented a thor- t< oughly villainous appearance. y Addressing one, I pointed out that, , many of the slaves were unfit to carry h loads. To this he smilingly replied: ig I "They have no choice! They must a , go, or die!" Then ensued.the following conversation:— ' ~ "Are all these slaves destined for Zanzibar?" u •'Most of them; the remainder will e ; stay at the coast.". ~ "Have you lost many on the road?" "Yes! Numbers have died of hun-J "Any run a Way?" ~• ■ 1 1( . "No; they are too well guarded. Only , p those-who become possessed with the K devil try to escape; there is nowhere 0 ' they could run to if they should go." p "What do you do when they become u too ill to travel?" n "Spear them at once!" was the fiend- jj i»h reply. "For, if we did not, others jj, would pretend they were ill in order to is avoid carrying their loads. No! we!g never leave them alive on the road; n they all know our custom." "I see women carrying not only a n child on their backs, but, in addition, a [ ( tusk of ivory or other burden on their j - u heads. What do you do in their case when they become too weak to carry both child and ivory? Who carries the ivory?" "She does! We cannot leave valuable j, ivory on the road. We spear the child j ( and make her burden lighter. Ivory t first, child afterwards!" a I could have struck the demon dead |., at my feet. ; <j For downright savagery this beat any- j thing I had met with. -'lvory first, j, child afterwards!" I repeated over and f over again. Alas! I was destined many | r times to witness the truth' of that cruel I statement. '•,{. Thus, early in my life I understood.' what Livingstone meant and felt when,. , in 1886, he wrote the following:—"lie- j sides those actually capture<l, thousands • are killed, or die of their wounds ana ■ famine, driven from their homes by tne j slave-raider. Thousands perish in inter- \~ necine wars, wages for slaves with their own clansmen or neighbors; slain by tne I ] lust for gain which is stimulated by the j slave-purchasers. The many skeletons j we have seen amongst - the rocks and woods, by the pools, and along the paths of the wilderness, all testify to the awful sacrifice of human life which must ■be attributed directly or indirectly ta this trade of hell." Strong, words, but. not a whit too strong!. > As the last poor creature in that liv- \ in« chain of wretchedness passed me, i every humane feeling within me rose up j In rebellion as I realised for the lirsc i time that, though a member of a philan- i thropical society, I was unable to respond to the-natural impulse of an Eng- j lishman to set the whole company free. Nevertheless, our indignant protest was • despatched both to Zanzibar and England, and I am glad to say we were then looking at the last caravan ever permit ; ted to leave the mainland. The reader,, however, should bear in mind that although those Eastern slave-routes are now closed, there is yet, at the present day, a considerable area in Africa still remaining wherein are practised similar j cruelties, which call- fof speedy suppres- j sion'by those European Powers who have I acquired the regions as a sphere of in- j fluence. j