They Are Gone:
They Are Either Drowned Near The Coast, Plundered And Massacred, Or
Carried Far Away Into The Desert, And Perhaps For Ever.
Formerly vessels
navigated through the channel (if it may be so called) of the Canary
Islands and the Wadnoun coast, by which they often got on shoal water,
and were cast away; in this manner, whites were enslaved.
Happily now,
masters of vessels have become acquainted with this dangerous coast.
They pass to the east of the Canaries, and fewer vessels are shipwrecked
hereabouts.
The Spanish fishermen of the Canaries are chiefly now made captives.
These poor people are either seized when becalmed near the coast, or
captured on being cast on shore by the furious trade-winds, which sweep
these desolate shores (often nine months out of twelve) and carry utter
destruction with them. The wild and wandering Bedouins in bad weather,
with the true storm scent of the wrecker, patiently watch the coasts,
pouncing on their prey, with the voracity of the vulture, as it is
thrown up from the deep, along the inhospitable shore. Having got the
shipwrecked men in their possession, they act with the cunning and
avarice of slave-dealers, and are aided by the still craftier Jews, who
always render it very difficult for the consular agents to redeem these
unhappy captives. For although a Jew, by the Mahometan law, cannot
purchase slaves, yet by buying them-through Mussulmen, who share in the
profits, from the Arabs who first seized the captives, the slaves are
frequently kept back months in the Desert, being parted from one another
before they can be ransomed.
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