It Then Rapidly Passed Away, And The Sun Shone As
Before; But We Had FELT The Darkness That Moses Had Inflicted Upon The
Egyptians.
The Egyptian Government had, it appeared, been pressed by some of the
European Powers to take measures for the suppression of the slave-trade:
a steamer had accordingly been ordered to capture all vessels laden
with this in famous cargo.
Two vessels had been seized and brought to
Khartoum, containing 850 human beings! - packed together like anchovies,
the living and the dying festering together, and the dead lying beneath
them. European eye-witnesses assured me that the disembarking of this
frightful cargo could not be adequately described. The slaves were in a
state of starvation, having had nothing to eat for several days. They
were landed in Khartoum; the dead and many of the dying were tied by the
ankles, and dragged along the ground by donkeys through the streets. The
most malignant typhus, or plague, had been engendered among this mass of
filth and misery, thus closely packed together. Upon landing, the women
were divided by the Egyptian authorities among the soldiers. These
creatures brought the plague to Khartoum, which, like a curse visited
upon this country of slavery and abomination, spread like a fire
throughout the town, and consumed the regiments that had received this
horrible legacy from the dying cargo of slaves. Among others captured by
the authorities on a charge of slave-trading was an Austrian subject,
who was then in the custody of the consul.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 645 of 662
Words from 173836 to 174089
of 178435
