They
Went About, Peeping Into Houses, And Wherever A Door Was Open They Would
Walk In, Staring With A Wild Curiosity.
I had some conversation with my Moorish friends respecting the abolition
of slavery.
An old doctor observed, "The English are not more humane
than other nations, but God has decreed that they should destroy the
slave-trade among the Christians. This, however, is no praise to them,
for they could not resist acting according to the will and mind of God.
As for the Mussulmen, what they do is for the benefit of slaves,
especially females, who, one and all, are doomed to death; [29] but,
when purchased by the slave-dealers, their lives are spared, and they
are made True Believers. Still, the Mussulmen would assist the English
in destroying the ships which carry slaves;" (as if the Moors had any
fleet).
The number of slaves in this city is from eight hundred to one thousand.
It is difficult to ascertain any thing like the exact number, the
opulent Moors having many negress slaves, with whom they live in a state
of concubinage. Young, rich, and fashionable Moors, I was told for the
first time in a Mahommedan country, have become disgusted with the old
habit of managing and taking a wife early, and adopt the immoral
practice of buying female slaves, by which they avoid, as they say, the
trouble and expense of marrying females of their own rank in Moorish
society. A good Mussulman must however, marry once in his life. Slaves
are imported via Wadnoun from Timbuctoo and Soudan, and even from the
western coast. Negroes of the Timbuctoo market are more esteemed than
those of Guinea, being a stronger and more laborious race. The common
price of a slave in Mogador is from 60 to 90 ducats; one day a beautiful
African girl, freshly exported from the interior, was sold for 160
ducats, or about L20 sterling. This is considered an extraordinary high
price.
Slaves are sold by criers about the streets in Morocco, and most towns,
and not in bazaars, as in the East. But the most remarkable feature of
slavery in this part of the world, is the Christian or European slavery
carried further south, in the regions extending on the line of coast
below Wadnoun, and the adjacent Sahara. Something like a regular system
of Christian slavery is there going on, whilst its head-quarters are not
more than five or six days' journey from this residence of the European
Consuls. This white slavery consists in seizing shipwrecked sailors,
numbers being fishermen from the Canary Islands. We know little about
these poor captives, although we are so near Wadnoun, and are
continually trading with Sous and this country. Mr. Davidson casually
mentions them in his journal.
It is a settled and religious practice of merchants to keep Europeans
ignorant of the south and the Desert; we only hear of these captives now
and then, when one escapes, and after being bought and sold by a hundred
different masters, is fortunate enough to be redeemed; of his companions
in shipwreck, the escaped captive rarely knows anything.
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