the Edge of the Saaera

LXIV. The Rival Wreckers

LXV. Another White Slave

LXVI. Sailor Bill's Brother

LXVII. A Living Stream

LXVIII. The Arabs at Home

LXIX. Work or Die

LXX. Victory!

LXXI. Sold Again

LXXII. Onward Once More

LXXIII. Another Bargain

LXXIV. More Torture

LXXV. En Route

LXXVI. Hope Deferred

LXXVII. El Hajji

LXXVIII. Bo Muzem's Journey

LXXIX. Rais Mourad

LXXX. Bo Muzem Back Again

LXXXI. A Pursuit

LXXXII. Moorish Justice

LXXXIII. The Jew's Leap

LXXXIV. Conclusion

THE BOY SLAVES.

CHAPTER I.

THE LAND OF THE SLAVE.

Land of Ethiope! whose burning centre seems unapproachable as the frozen
Pole!

Land of the unicorn and the lion,--of the crouching panther and the
stately elephant,--of the camel, the camelopard, and the camel-bird!
land of the antelopes,--of the wild gemsbok, and the gentle
gazelle,--land of the gigantic crocodile and huge river-horse,--land
teeming with animal life, and last in the list of my apostrophic
appellations,--last, and that which must grieve the heart to pronounce
it,--land of the slave!

Ah! little do men think while thus hailing thee, how near may be the
dread doom to their own hearths and homes! Little dream they, while
expressing their sympathy,--alas! too often, as of late shown in
England, a hypocritical utterance,--little do they suspect, while glibly
commiserating the lot of thy sable-skinned children, that hundreds--aye,
thousands--of their own color and kindred are held within thy confines,
subject to a lot even lowlier than these,--a fate far more fearful.

Alas! it is even so. While I write, the proud Caucasian,--despite his
boasted superiority of intellect,--despite the whiteness of his
skin,--may be found by hundreds in the unknown interior, wretchedly
toiling, the slave not only of thy oppressors, but the slave of thy
slaves!

Let us lift that curtain, which shrouds thy great Saaera, and look upon
some pictures that should teach the son of Shem, while despising his
brothers Ham and Japhet, that he is not yet master of the world.

* * * * *

Dread is that shore between Susa and Senegal, on the western edge of
Africa,--by mariners most dreaded of any other in the world. The very
thought of it causes the sailor to shiver with affright. And no wonder:
on that inhospitable seaboard thousands of his fellows have found a
watery grave; and thousands of others a doom