The Slave Trade.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 101, 12 September 1901, Page 4

The Slave Trade.

Ib was reported a few days ago' thifc >vn expedition has been sent to suppress slave-raiding in Eastern Nigeria, Ih.-se slave rails arc, of course, the mns»6 horrible part of the trade in fle=h and hlo-id, for they whole villages desolate. According to Mr T. f. Tonkin, who writes in the Empire Review, actual trading is conducted in anything but a barbarous fashion. The slaves are well treated on thd march, because it is to the traders' interest to keep his property in good condition, and even in the markets there is little apparent misery. Mothers who have lost their children, chiefs shorn ».f their au l hority, men worn by privation or disease, and maimed young men or women may some* times be seen and heard wailing bitte ly, but aa a rule only strong, hialthy children and adults come into the markets. Values are fairly con tant. Children from seven to ten years old are * rth from £2 10s to £3 15s; a goodlooking boy of twelve or fourteen is worth £7, a boy of seventeen £5 10s, a girl of the s*me age £9 10s, a i adu t woman £3, and a fullgrown man £5 10s. The ordinary medium of currency h the cowrie shell, but shell* are useless for large transactions, and the use of slaves for making large payments haß led to an enormous developm nt of s-lave trading Cowries to the v*lue of £IOO would require fully 300 nten to carry them, and the cost of transport would rapidly eat up th« whole money. A very large proportion of the slaves in Nigeria have been in servitude from th-ir -earliest years. Babies and ve<y young children of the conquered in battle are regarded as this perquisites of anyone who troubles to pick them up, and are generally sold on the spot to the -poorer classes. The children meantime are carried about in sacks ; and Mr Tonkin describes hotf a dealer in babies will turn out his sack full of b'ack bundles, clinging and writhiug like worms, for the inspection of a possible purchaser. The natives see nothing either appalling or amusing in such an incident, but to a European it is both ludicrous and horrible. Mr Tonkin himself was assurrd by a dealer that as" an ordinary slave he would feioh about £lO in the market, but his scientific* knowledge would give him an enormously greater value.