MEHEMED ALl'S SLAVE-HUNTS. 305 CHAPTER XVI.

MBHEMED ALl's SLAVE-HUNTS IN GENERAL.'*' Many travellers who have visited the East, and more especially Egj'pt, justly mention the humanity with which slaves are treated in these countries, but few persons are probably acquainted with the inhuman manner in which these miserable beings are led into captivity. The treatment they meet with among the Turks, Arabs, and other eastern nations, certainly is an indemnification, although a very frail one, for the loss of their liberty ; but unfortunately only a small number of these poor wretches live" to enjoy even this slight benefit, for more than one I furnished Dr. Madden, who was sent by the English " Society for the Abolishment of the Slave Trade," to Egypt, with the body of the matter of this and the following chapter at his urgent request, and that of several other gentlemen who were totally at a loss for correct information on the slave-hunts annually taking place in the provinces of the Pasha of Egypt. I was the more willing to assist him in this undertaking, as it was the intention of the Society to make representations to Mehemed Ali on this subject, and thus to endeavour to save thousands of unfortunate victims. This and the subsequent chapter have appeared in the second volume of the " British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter," No. 28, Jan. 13th, 1841.

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