n
in its religion, Arabian in its morals, a cesspool of wickedness, it is
a fit capital to the Dark Continent." And it is the great emporium--not
an obscure settlement, but the consummate flower of East African
civilization and boasting in the late Sultan Bargash, an unusually
enlightened Moslem ruler. Of the interior and the ivory-slave trade
pursued under the auspices of Arab dominion the same author says: "Arab
encampments for carrying on a wholesale trade in this terrible commodity
are now established all over the heart of Africa. They are usually
connected with wealthy Arab traders at Zanzibar and other places on the
coast, and communication is kept up by caravans, which pass at long
intervals from one to the other. Being always large and well-supplied
with the material of war, these caravans have at their mercy the feeble
and divided native tribes through which they pass, and their trail
across the continent is darkened with every aggravation of tyranny and
crime. They come upon the scene suddenly; they stay only long enough to
secure their end, and disappear only to return when a new crop has
arisen which is worth the reaping. Sometimes these Arab traders will
actually settle for a year or two in the heart of some quiet community
in the remote interior. They pretend perfect friendship; they molest no
one; they barter honestly. They plant the seeds of their favorite
vegetables and fruits--the Arab always carries seeds with him--as if
they meant to stay forever. Meantime they buy ivory, tusk after tusk,
until great piles of it are buried beneath their huts, and all their
barter goods are gone. Then one day suddenly the inevitable quarrel is
picked. And then follows a wholesale massacre. Enough only are spared
from the slaughter to carry the ivory to the coast; the grass huts of
the village are set on fire; the Arabs strike camp; and the slave march,
worse than death, begins. The last act in the drama, the slave march, is
the aspect of slavery which in the past has chiefly aroused the passions
and the sympathy of the outside world, but the greater evil is the
demoralization and disintegration of communities by which it is
necessarily preceded. It is essential to the traffic that the region
drained by the slaver should be kept in perpetual political ferment;
that, in order to prevent combination, chief should be pitted against
chief, and that the moment any tribe threatens to assume a dominating
strength it should eit