The Soil Being Fertile And The
Climate Favourable To Cultivation, All Tropical Produce Would Thrive;
Cotton, Coffee, And The Sugarcane
Are indigenous; but although both
climate and soil are favourable, the conditions necessary to successful
enterprise are wanting - the population
Is scanty, and the material of
the very worst; the people vicious and idle. The climate, although
favourable for agriculture, is adverse to the European constitution;
thus colonization would be out of the question. What can be done with so
hopeless a prospect? Where the climate is fatal to Europeans, from
whence shall civilization be imported? The heart of Africa is so
completely secluded from the world, and the means of communication are
so difficult, that although fertile, its geographical position debars
that vast extent of country from improvement: thus shut out from
civilization it has become an area for unbridled atrocities, as
exemplified in the acts of the ivory traders.
Difficult and almost impossible is the task before the Missionary. The
Austrian Mission has failed, and the stations have been forsaken; their
pious labour was hopeless, and the devoted priests died upon their
barren field. What curse lies so heavily upon Africa and bows her down
beneath all other nations? It is the infernal traffic in slaves - a trade
so hideous, that the heart of every slave and owner becomes deformed,
and shrinks like a withered limb incapable of action. The natural love
of offspring, shared with the human race by the most savage beast,
ceases to warm the heart of the wretched slave. Why should the mother
love her child, if it is born to become the PROPERTY of her owner? - to
be SOLD as soon as it can exist without the mother's care. Why should
the girl be modest, when she knows that she is the actual PROPERTY, the
slave, of every purchaser? Slavery murders the sacred feeling of love,
that blessing that cheers the lot of the poorest man, that spell that
binds him to his wife, and child, and home. Love cannot exist with
slavery - the mind becomes brutalized to an extent that freezes all those
tender feelings that Nature has implanted in the human heart to separate
it from the beast; and the mind, despoiled of all noble instincts,
descends to hopeless brutality. Thus is Africa accursed: nor can she be
raised to any scale approaching to civilization until the slave-trade
shall be totally suppressed. The first step necessary to the improvement
of the savage tribes of the White Nile is the annihilation of the
slave-trade. Until this be effected, no legitimate commerce can be
established; neither is there an opening for missionary enterprise - the
country is sealed and closed against all improvement.
Nothing would be easier than to suppress this infamous traffic, were the
European Powers in earnest. Egypt is in favour of slavery. I have never
seen a Government official who did not in argument uphold slavery as an
institution absolutely necessary to Egypt, thus any demonstration made
against the slave-trade by the Government of that country will be simply
a pro forma movement to blind the European Powers. Their eyes thus
closed, and the question shelved, the trade will resume its channel.
Were the reports of European consuls supported by their respective
Governments, and were the consuls themselves empowered to seize vessels
laden with slaves, and to liberate gangs of slaves when upon a land
journey, that abominable traffic could not exist. The hands of the
European consuls are tied, and jealousies interwoven with the Turkish
question act as a bar to united action on the part of Europe; no Power
cares to be the first to disturb the muddy pool. The Austrian consul at
Khartoum, Herr Natterer, told me, in 1862, that he had vainly reported
the atrocities of the slave-trade to his Government - NO REPLY HAD BEEN
RECEIVED to his report. Every European Government KNOWS that the
slave-trade is carried on to an immense extent in Upper Egypt, and that
the Red Sea is the great Slave Lake by which these unfortunate creatures
are transported to Arabia and to Suez - but the jealousies concerning
Egypt muzzle each European Power. Should one move, the other would
interfere to counteract undue influence in Egypt. Thus is immunity
insured to the villanous actors in the trade. Who can prosecute a slave
trader of the White Nile? What legal evidence can be produced from
Central Africa to secure a conviction in an English Court of Law? The
English consul (Mr. Petherick) arrested a Maltese, the nephew of
Debono; - the charge could not be legally supported. Thus are the consuls
fettered, and their acts nullified by the impossibility of producing
reliable evidence; - the facts are patent; but who can prove them
legally?
Stop the White Nile trade; prohibit the departure of any vessels from
Khartoum for the south, and let the Egyptian Government grant a
concession to a company for the White Nile, subject to certain
conditions, and to a special supervision. (There are already four
steamers at Khartoum.) Establish a military post of 200 men at
Gondokoro; an equal number below the Shillook tribe in 13 degrees
latitude, and, with two steamers cruising on the river, not a slave
could descend the White Nile.
Should the slave-trade be suppressed, there will be a good opening for
the ivory trade; the conflicting trading parties being withdrawn, and
the interest of the trade exhibited by a single company, the natives
would no longer be able to barter ivory for cattle; thus they would be
forced to accept other goods in exchange. The newly-discovered Albert
lake opens the centre of Africa to navigation. Steamers ascend from
Khartoum to Gondokoro in latitude 4 degrees 55'. Seven days' march south
from that station the navigable portion of the Nile is reached, where
vessels can ascend direct to the Albert lake - thus an enormous extent
of country is opened to navigation, and Manchester goods and various
other articles would find a ready market in exchange for ivory, at a
prodigious profit, as in those newly-discovered regions ivory has a
merely nominal value.
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