— io8 — and race, and not by that of a civilised and humanitarian British public.

How far Zubeir's aim was trade and how far empire is a question that, perhaps, may never be satisfactorily solved. For though slaves in countless numbers passed through his hands it must be admitted that, in all probability, their acquisition was but a means to an end. That is the view that Zubeir himself would like adopted, and he always and insistently denied to me that he raided slaves, a position that may have been taken up in consideration of the attitude adopted by the present Government towards this question. At any rate, while B prisoner at Gibraltar, he tried to defend the custom and practice of slavery, pointing out, quite justly, that the institution is sanctioned by the law of Mohammed, and the practiceof Mohammedan countries.

It might be urged in Zubeir's favour that he was led, from victory to victory, to the acquisition of large bodies of slaves, and that this was an accident inseparable from the conditions under which trade was carried on in those parts. Or again, it is possible that, though the capture of slaves was but an incidental in a larger scheme of things, he regarded their acquisition as a necessary step to the attainment of his ends. He may not, as Lord Ribblesdale remarks (i) have been a slave-dealer in (i) XIX cent., June 1908.