day. That outlet will be wanting. Civilized nations can no longer
tolerate the slave trade!

Yes, without doubt; and this year even, 1878, ought to see the
enfranchisement of all the slaves still possessed by Christian States.
However, for long years to come the Mussulman nations will maintain
this traffic, which depopulates the African continent. It is for them,
in fact, that the most important emigration of the blacks is made, as
the number of natives snatched from their provinces and brought to
the eastern coast annually exceeds forty thousand. Long before the
expedition to Egypt the negroes of the Seunaar were sold by thousands
to the negroes of the Darfour, and reciprocally. General Bonaparte was
able to buy a pretty large number of these blacks, of whom he made
organized soldiers, like the Mamelukes. Since then, during this
century, of which four-fifths have now passed away, commerce in slaves
has not diminished in Africa. On the contrary.

And, in fact, Islamism is favorable to the slave trade. The black
slave must replace the white slave of former times, in Turkish
provinces. So contractors of every origin pursue this execrable
traffic on a large scale. They thus carry a supplement of population
to those races, which are dying out and will disappear some day,
because they do not regenerate themselves by labor. These slaves, as
in the time of Bonaparte, often become soldiers. With certain nations
of the upper Niger, they compose the half of the armies of the African
chiefs. Under these circumstances, their fate is not sensibly inferior
to that of free men. Besides, when the slave is not a soldier, he is
money which has circulation; even in Egypt and at Bornou, officers and
functionaries are paid in that money. William Lejean has seen it and
has told of it.