SLAVERY TO-DAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8145, 23 May 1906, Page 3

SLAVERY TO-DAY.

HOW MEN AND WOMEN ARE BOUGHT IN PORTUGUESE AFRICA. Just a year ago, says Mr Henry W. Nevinson in the Daily Ohroniole, I was starting for my walk of 300 miles across the Ouanza River and through the Hungry Country of Angola, the Portuguese territory in Central Africa, south of the Congo State. I had alreaay come up from the west coast by a roundabout route to the district of fiihe, and there I joined a the path whioh had for centuries been one of the chief trade roada into tbe interior. It is merely a track, in most PLACES SO NARROW that you nave to walk like a native, putting one foot exaotly in front of the other, but it leads in almost a direct line from the sea near * Benguela, across the thirsty mountain belt, through be pleasant valley of Bailundu, over the wet plateau of Bourußouru, across the Cuanza full of hippos, through the Hungry Country and the high watershed where the tributaries of the Congo and the Zambesi flow down on either hand, across the soaking Luvale flats, past Livingstone's Lake Dilolo, through Nanakandundu, the home of the great queen, into Congo territory to the copper ranges of Katanga, and so to the lakes and away to the eastern sea. And this little traok which turns and twists to avoid every tree stump and tuft of grass, has from time immemorial been one of the great slave routes of the world. It is so still. As I entered the Hungry Country I found SLAVE SHACKLES hanging on almost every bush. They are the wooden fetters with which the hands or feet of the slaves are tied at night, or with which slaves are linkei together on the maroh. On reaching the Cuanza, tbe shackles are often knocked off, because th e slaves begin to despair of escape with that long stretch of Hungry Country behind them; tbe other day I had a letter from an Englslhman I knew west of the Cuanaz, saying "Since you left the traffic has iicreasud and is more open. The slaves are now goiig to tbe coast tied up, or rather tied together, in continuous lines." The path through the Hungry Country is STREWN WITH BONES AND SKULLS, and I found there the fresh bodies of slaves, some murdered some left to starve, because through fever or fatigue they have been unable to keep up with the party on tbe march, and in going through the Hungry Country no une waits.

Ia most cases the slaves are origibally obtained by natives, who bay them 011 some charge of witchcraft, or for debt, or for drink. Sometimes they are kidnapped or captured in raids. Sometimes they ARE MERE PLUNDER

of Portuguese traders. They are brought to the so-called "Emigration Agents," established at various points in the country under Portuguese regulations, and are forwarded by them to the ooaßt, where they are received by other fagents, obiefly at Bengneln, but also at Novo Bedondo and Lioanda. The priues naturally vary according to the slave's health and capacity. I have known a woman who wos taken from her husband and three obildren far in the interior, bought for twenty cartridges, and sold in Bengaela for about £lB. In the distriort of JBihe, which is some 300 miles from the coast, an ox, a load of rubber' (say 661b), and a young slave are regarded as about equal vaiue—say £7. But in iienguela, as nearly as 1 could estimate, the average price given for emigration slaves is £l6, though I have known a man give as much as £25 there for a really nice-looking girl. She, however, was not required for emigration.

Large numbers of slaves are kept to work the plantations on the mainland or other industries along the shore, but 1 wish now to speak only of the export trade to the Portuguese islands of San Thome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea. The slaves aie conveyed on the ordinary passenger steamers, which run about onoe a fortnight. A day or two before the steamer starts they are oolleoted in a public building before the Portuguese official, called the Ourador. They are asked whether they are willing to labour on the islands for five years. Mot the slightest attention is paid to their answer. A tin disc with a number, and a tin cylinder containing a paper with particulars as to their names, etc., are hung round their neaks, and, having entered the office a slave, they gu out as "contracted labours." This is theprooess which the Portuguese call "redemption." They are next taken on board in lighters and herded forward. There were 272 on the ship by which I came last June, not counting babies,which perhaps numbered fifty. The average during the last few years has been a little under 4,000 a year, but it is now rieiDg' owing to the perpetual

DEMAND OF THE PLANTERS for more and more labour. After about a week's journey, the slaves are landed on San Thome and tbey are distributed among tbe planters who have requisitioned the "Emigration Committee" for them. Tbe planters pay from £26 to £3O for a grown slave delivered in good condition. It is almost entirely for the cultivation of cocoa that tho slaves are required for the two islands being close under tbe equator, and nearly always veiled in mist and dripping with moisture, are as good for oocoa as they aro * DEADLY FOR HUMAN LIFJti, and the cocoa trade is now of great and increasing value; 1 believe it amounts to about £1,000,000, a year. And the value of the slaves is consequently so great that 1 think their masters try in moat cases to keep them alive, i'et the death rate, where we oan check it, is enormous. Among the slaves of Principe, one in five dies every year, and where 1 have been able to

test the rate on San Thome, it is almost equally high. At the end of the Ave jeas the survivors are called up in batches of about fifty, before the Curador, and are informed that their contract has been renewed for another term of five years. They never go back. I have sought in vain for a single case in which a slave from Angola as been returned to his home. A vety few esoape over sea in canoes A few hundreds, especially on Principe, have escaped to the forests, and are living there like wild beasts. Prom time to time the planters institute drives or battues and shoot them off. It was described to me as fine sport.