— 98 — merchants, Government Officials and traders for slaves supplied, (i) The method employed by these slavers was simple ; they leased a large territory from the Government for purposes of trading, but, as they never knew when their lease would be cancelled, their one aim and object was to obtain the maximum of profit in the minimum of time.

One Ghattas, a Copt, controlled a country of 3,000 square miles, with a population of 13,000, from whom he plundered, in 1 869, 8,000 head of cattle besides ivory, corn etc. (2) Another of these traders, named Aghad, claimed the right of jurisdiction over no less than 90,000 square miles of territory. A similar area was leased by the Turkish Government to Sheikh Ahmed Agha for an annual sum of ;E.3,ooo, in much the same way that the Roman provinces were farmed out to the highest bidder. In either case obvious and enormous abuses crept in. Originally, no doubt, a considerable profit was made by legitimate trade but, as the numbers and power of the merchants increased, while the means of resistance by the savages diminished, all pretence of lawful and honest trading was cast aside, and the (i) Sir Samuel Baker estimates that the number of men actually employed in the slave traffic in 1867 was 15,000, (2) Brown 2. 140.