pire since 1833, including its West Indian colonies and British Guiana. In 1848 France declared that no more slaves should be admitted into French territory. Serfdom in Russia ceased with the decree of Alexander II., in 1861, and the Emancipation Proclamation of President. Lincoln, in 1863, restored to freedom 6,000,000 bondmen in the United States. In 1889 slavery was abolished in Brazil, as it had been in most of the South American republics at the time of their establishment. It is now the universal policy of civilized nations to prohibit the status of slavery.

It is an evil which still exists, however, in vast sections of the nonChristian world. It may be said to be universal in Africa, except where European influence has been exerted in prohibi

Its continuance in many sections of the non-Christian world.

tion. It is characteristic of all Mohammedan society, and is found in Madagascar, where fully one third of the population is in bondage. In China, Korea, Siam, Assam, in some of the Native States of India, in Afghanistan, and in Central America it is also to be found. It is hardly necessary to refer at any length to the fact of its prevalence in Africa, as every explorer, traveller, and missionary bears witness to the evil; nor does the fact that it is a feature of the social and religious system of Islam need to be dwelt upon. In Madagascar, although slavery is rather of a domestic and patriarchal kind, with less severity than usual in the treatment of slaves, yet its evils are by no means light. The slave-market is a familiar sight, and the separation of families is of common occurrence.2 As France has now assumed colonial supervision of Madagascar, the question of the application to the island of the laws of France pertaining to the abolition of slavery has engaged the attention of the French Government. M. Lebon, the French Minister for the Colonies, has declared that the law of abolition is now applicable to Madagascar, but he remarks further that "the Government reserved to itself the right of promulgating this law at the time when it deemed fitting, in order that the situation might not be complicated by a too hurried application of its provisions."

1 Liberia, Bulletin No. 8, pp. 14-23.

2 44 Slavery is still a great evil in Madagascar. It is true that the condition of many of the slaves is not hard, the slavery being akin to that of the old patriarchal times; but still the fact remains that slaves can be bought and sold, and that husband and wife and parents and children can be separated. The conditions under which a slave can redeem himself or herself are often very hard, and at death the property of a slave can be, and often is, claimed by the master or mistress."-Rev. J. Pearse (L. M. S.), Fianarantsoa, Tamatave, Madagascar. Cf. Cousins, "The Madagascar of To-day," p. 59; The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1895, p. 433.

Domestic slavery in China, Korea, Siam, and Assam.

In China domestic slavery, mostly of females, exists extensively throughout the empire. The girls are usually purchased from their parents while still young, and the trade is especially active in times of famine, drought, or pestilence, or merely as an expedient in poverty. There is much that is shocking and suggestive of grinding drudgery, attended often by ill-treatment, which comes to light now and then concerning the domestic features of Chinese slavery.1 A darker aspect of it is that servitude is often another name for immorality. In Korea, although the abolition of slavery has been declared by edict, the institution still exists, and the law is practically inoperative, but it is almost altogether confined to the nobles and to the wealthier families of the land. In Siam the Government is virtually in place of master over its subjects, and in its demands for service pays little deference to personal rights. In addition, a species of slavery for debt prevails extensively, which is also true in the Laos country.3 In Assam the same custom of selling children to pay debts, or in some cases as offerings to the demons, is a pitiable incident in many a family history. If some child of the family is stricken with disease, the superstitious parents, while dreading and bemoaning the supposed necessity, will sell their children one after another in the hope of providing an appeasing sacrifice for the demon and securing the release and recovery of the sick member of the family. Children thus sold are rarely redeemed, and what is practically a state of slavery is thereby created.4

1 Douglas, “Society in China,” pp. 346–350; Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 51.

2 Slavery and Feudalism in Korea," The Korean Repository, October, 1895; Griffis," Corea," p. 238.

3 "All, except the Chinese residents, are slaves of the general Government, and hence at the call of the Government master, whose whims usually demand more than is strictly lawful. Besides this, fully half of the population are debt slaves of the other half. These are sold into slavery, a child by a parent, a wife by her husband, or it may be a voluntary sale."-Dr. James B. Thompson (P. B. F. M. N.), Petchaburee, Siam.

"Slavery is another evil of our land. Very often a man becomes financially embarrassed. He will borrow money where he can, and will often give himself and family as security Usually he gives one of his children to sit on the interest,' as our people express it. They never hesitate to put their children out in this way. When such debts are not paid by a certain time the entire family is often taken as slaves."-Rev. D. G. Collins (P. B. F. M. N.), Chieng Mai, Laos.

4 "Masters do not sell their slaves by auction, although they exchange or transfer them to others under certain conditions. But people sell themselves and their children in order to get money to pay their debts or to sacrifice to the demons. It is a kind of pawning themselves and their children until they find money, which

In India, although the status of slavery is not recognized by the British Government, and the institution as such is prohibited, yet in the Native States, and to some extent in British territory, is found a system of labor slavery which is substantially the same as the bondage for debt above India. The status in referred to.1 It is one of the advantages of British

Servitude for debt in the Native States of

Afghanistan.

rule that the days of the old slave-kings have forever passed. The attachment of serfs to the soil, which amounted to slavery a century ago, has been gradually mitigated and banished by British law.2 Until 1843, however, the hereditary slaves in Madras were sold with the land.3 In Afghanistan the Amir has come into notoriety of late upon charges of being a kidnapper and slave-raider among neighboring independent tribes, especially the Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush. In fact, the extinction

of the latter people seems to be well under way. That slavery exists in Afghanistan is evident. A recent volume by John Alfred Gray, M. B., late Surgeon to the Amir, entitled "At the Court of the Amir," gives undoubted testimony upon this point. He reports that "the slaves of Kabul are those who have been kidnapped from Kafiristan, and who are prisoners of war taken when some tribe breaks out in rebellion against the Amir." 4 Other quotations fully confirming the status of slavery might be given. Slavery for debt exists in some sec

they hardly ever do, to buy themselves or their children back. I have seen whole families becoming, to all practical purposes, childless in this way.”— Rev. Robert Evans (W. C. M. M. S.), Mawphlang, Shillong, Assam.

1 "Legally there is no slavery. Virtually all the lower castes or outcastes are the slaves of the upper castes, who gain power by lending them money, and in time rob them of all their possessions, and compel all, men, women, and children, to work for them. They are often very cruel to them, and persecute them in case they try to benefit themselves by becoming Christians."-Dr. John Scudder (Ref. C. A.), Vellore, India.

"There is a system of labor slavery. A poor man is in debt to a rich man and works for him. Unfortunately, as I have found in hundreds of cases, the debt never seems to decrease. When the poor fellow tries to escape his master, that master threatens him with a civil suit, and the old order goes on. If he cannot work he binds out his son to the rich man, and the same process continues. It is not slavery in the buying and selling of the man, but it is so in the absolute control of his service at the wish of the master, and supported by the civil law, though unwittingly, as far as Government goes. There are many thousands in such labor slavery among the people I know."-Rev. L. L. Uhl, Ph.D. (Luth. G. S.), Guntur, India. 2 Hunter, "The Indian Empire," p. 84.

3 Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years of British Administration," p. 143, and Appendices, pp. lviii., lxviii.

The Anti-Slavery Reporter, January-February, 1896, pp. 15-34; The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, January, 1896, pp. 153-159.

tions of Central America. The Rev. E. M. Haymaker (P. B. F. M. N.), of Guatemala City, writes: "Virtual slavery exists in some parts of the republic. The law compels a laborer to stay and work with his employer till his debt is discharged. The employer, however, has the means at hand by which he can, through an ever-increasing debt, keep the laborer in his power forever, the debt descending from father to He can abuse and beat the laborer as he pleases, for a mere 'Indian' would have no hope whatever before the judge against so powerful an opponent."

son.

The question of slavery in Zanzibar.

The existence of slavery in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, an English protectorate since 1890, is an anomaly which is exciting vigorous discussion in anti-slavery circles in England, and the British Government has been repeatedly memorialized to abolish finally the status of slavery in Zanzibar and Pemba. The recent death of the Sultan and the attempt at revolution will perhaps facilitate this step on the part of the Government. The importation of slaves has been forbidden by treaty since 1872, and by a decree of the British Government all children born within the bounds of the sultanate after December, 1889, are free, so that the only really lawful slaves in the protectorate at the present time are the survivors of those imported before June, 1873, or their children born before 1890. The drift of events, however, has been to maintain slavery at about its usual standard, since a secret importation, of an average of 6000 slaves annually, has been going on in defiance of the treaty. The number actually in bondage in Zanzibar and Pemba is variously estimated from 140,000 by government officials, to 266,000 by Mr. Donald Mackenzie, the recent special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to investigate slavery and the slave-trade on the East Coast of Africa. The effort to secure from the Government the total abolition of the recognized status of slavery in Zanzibar is timely, since the existence of slavery is an overwhelming temptation to the slave-trade, and adds immensely to the difficulties of preventing it. In a communication, before referred to, published in The Times (London), June 23, 1896, Bishop Tucker of East Africa urges most earnestly the immediate abolition of the status of slavery in the protectorate. His letter was accompanied by a memorial, which was forwarded to the Consul-General at Zanzibar by English missionaries of East Africa, praying that the action suggested might be speedily taken by Her Majesty's Government.1 Of the characteristic evils of slavery little need be said. They are

1 [Slavery in Zanzibar was abolished April 6, 1897.]

too manifest to require discussion. Its cruel wounds, wherever it exists, are as fresh to-day as in the past, and its gross scandals are as pronounced now as at any former period. That Christian missions have had an honorable record in mitigating the miseries of slavery and dealing sturdy blows at the abominable traffic in slaves is a fact to which we shall give attention in another connection.

3. CANNIBALISM.-Cannibalism is one of the most fiendish and loathsome aspects of social barbarism. It is a fearful incentive to the crime of murder, and a stimulus to every bloodthirsty passion in the human breast. Strange to say, at a recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ipswich, it found a mild apologist in Mr. H. A. Thrum, who deprecated its classification among vices, and would regard it rather as "a habit"! Its story for ages has been written in blood amid brutal scenes and inhuman orgies. Its prevalence has probably been far more extensive than the civilized world has realized. It is one of those hidden mysteries of iniquity which even heathenism instinctively conceals. Although much has come to light concerning it, its dark secrets will ever remain as part of the unwritten history of pure savagery.

Is cannibalism still prevalent among savage races?

The testimony as to its existence in the past among degraded races is abundant and cumulative, and need not be reviewed at any length here. Our interest in the subject centres rather in the question of its existence at the present time. Are we to regard it as a relic of the past, or must we consider it as still characteristic of the savage life of the world to-day? A tendency to minimize its practice and make light of its existence has been manifest in some quarters, but the evidence that it is still practised in our day in many of the haunts of savagery is sufficient to justify its place in the list of the regnant evils of pagan society. Among the aborigines of Australia, especially the Papuans of Queensland, cannibal feasts are a common occurrence, as Lumholtz declares.1 The Maoris of New Zealand were detestable cannibals until the British Government took control of the islands, and the saving touch of Christianity transformed the whole social economy of a wildly savage race.2 In New Guinea, the Rev. James Chalmers has

1 Lumholtz, "Among Cannibals," p. 101; The Missionary Review, July, 1896, p. 492.

2 Tucker, "The English Church in Other Lands," pp. 84-95; Page, “Among the Maoris," p. 149.