hands of the Government or European consuls, the
amount is not entered as for the purchase of a slave,
but is divided for fictitious supplies—thus, should a
slave he purchased for 1000 piastres, that amount
would appear on the document somewhat, as follows :—
Soap . . . . . . . . . .* 50 Piastres.
Tarboash (c ap )............................ 100
Araki . . . . .. . . . . . 500
Shoes.............................. 200
Cotton C l o t h ............................ 150
1,000
The slaves sold to the men are constantly being
changed and resold among themselves; but should
the relatives of the kidnapped women and children
wish to ransom them, the trader takes them from
his men, cancels the amount of purchase, and restores
them to their relations for a . certain number of elephants’
tusks, as may be agreed upon. Should any
slave attempt to escape, she is punished either by
brutal flogging, or shot or hanged, as a warning to
others.
An attack or razzia, such as described, generally
leads to a quarrel with the negro ally, who in his turn
is murdered and plundered by the trader—his women
and children naturally becoming slaves.
A good season for a party of a hundred and fifty
men should produce about two hundred cantars
(20,000 lbs.) of ivory, valued at Khartoum at £4,000.
The men being paid in slaves, the wages should be
nil,a n d there should be a surplus of, four or five
hundred slaves for the trader’s own profit—worth on
an average five to six pounds each.
The boats are accordingly packed with a human
cargo, and a portion of the trader’s men accompany
them to the Soudan, while the remainder of the party
form a camp or settlement in the country they have
adopted, and industriously plunder, massacre, and
enslave, until their master’s return with boats from
Khartoum in the following season, by which time
they are supposed to have a cargo of slaves and ivory
ready for shipment. The business thus thoroughly
established, the slaves are landed at various points
within a few days’ journey of Khartoum, at which
places are agents, or purchasers, waiting to receive
them with dollars prepared for cash payments. The
purchasers and dealers are, for the most part,. Arabs.
The slaves are then marched across the' country to
different places; many to Sennaar, where they are
sold to other dealers, who sell them to the Arabs
and to the TUrks. Others are taken immense distances
to ports on the Red Sea, Souakim, and Masowa,
there to be shipped for Arabia and Persia, Many