my horse, about noon, overcome by the heat of the sun, I was suddenly awakened by a crashing under my feet; and found that my steed had stepped on. the perfect skeletons of two human beings, cracking their brittle bones under his feet; and by one trip of his foot separating a skull from the trunk, it rolled on like a ball before him.' About the walls of El-Hamar, they saw many; and among the rest, the skeletons of two young females, faithful friends it would seem, even in death, for they lay with their fleshless arms still clasped round each other."[1] We hear much of the] horrors of the slave-trade on the western coast, and of the 'middle passage" across the Atlantic; but were that all put an end to to-morrow, the sufferings of the Africans would be but very partially relieved, while the internal slave-trade in their own country is still so actively going on. We must extend our plans and push our efforts far beyond American slavery, and even beyond the Atlantic slave-trade, — into the heart of Africa itself, — if we would strike at the root of the evil, and put an end to the sufferings of humanity that spring from this source. American slavery is but a drop in the bucket; it is merely one of the branches of African slavery.
Here is a description of the manner in which these wretched slaves, about to be driven across the Desert, are procured:
"In Bornou, where the slave-trade is carried on to an immense extent and is the principal traffic, the mode in which slaves are procured is very summary.
- ↑ Freeman's Plea for Africa, Conversation VI.
