the rendezvous, under a large spreading tree on the
right bank of the mouth O of the river Ruchd. . The party is decidedly motley. The man of quaintest
aspect in it is Sidi Mabarak Bombay. He is of
the Wahiyow tribe, who make the best slaves in Eastern
Africa. His breed is that of the true wo oily -
headed negro, though he does not represent a good
specimen of them physically, being somewhat smaller
in his general proportions than those one generally
sees as stokers in our steamers that traverse the
Indian Ocean. His head, though woodeny, like a
barber’s block, is lit up by a humorous little pair of
pig-like eyes, set in a generous benign-looking countenance,
which, strange to say, does not belie him, for
his good conduct and honesty of purpose are without
parallel. His muzzle projects dog-monkey fashion,
and is adorned with a regular set of sharp-pointed
alligator teeth, which he presents to full view as constantly
as his very ticklish risible faculties become
excited. The tobacconist s “ jolly nigger, stuck in the
corner house of ------- street, as it stands in mute
but full grin, tempting the patronage of accidental
passengers, is his perfect counterpart. This wonderful
man says he knows nothing of his genealogy, nor
any of the dates of the leading epochs of his adventurous
life,—not even his birth, time of captivity, or
restoration.
But his general history he narrated to me as follows,
which I give as he told it me, for this sketch
may be of interest, presenting, as it does, a good characteristic
account of the manner in which slave-hunts
are planned and carried into execution. I t must be
truthful, for I have witnessed tragedies of a similar
nature. The great slave-hunters of Eastern Africa
are the Wasuahili or coast people; formerly slaves
themselves, they are more enlightened, and fuller of
tricks than the interior people, whom they now in
their turn catch. Having been once caught themselves,
they know how to proceed, and are consequently
very cautious in their movements, taking sometimes
years before they finally try to accomplish their object.
They first ensnare the ignorant unsuspicious inlanders
by alluring and entangling them in the treacherous
meshes of debt, and then, by capturing and mercilessly
selling their human game, liquidate the debt,
insinuatingly advanced as an irresistible decoy to
allure their confiding victims.
Bombay says : “ I am a Mhiyow ; my father lived
in a village in the country of Uhiyow (a large district
situated between the east coast and the Nyassa (Lake)
in latitude 11° S.) Of my mother I have but the
faintest recollection she died whilst I was in my
infancy. Our village was living in happy contentment,
until the fated year when I was about the age of twelve.
At that period a large body of Wasuahili merchants
and their slaves, all equipped with sword and gun,
came suddenly, and, surrounding our village, demanded
of the inhabitants instant liquidation of their debts
(cloths and beads), advanced in former times of pinching
dearth, or else to stand the consequences of refusal.