SLAVERY AND THE DRINK TRAFFIC IN AFRICA.
ABOUT one-fourth of the Africans are Mohammedans and almost three-fourths pagans. The religion of the latter is little more than fear of spirits, combined with which is a universal belief in witchcraft. Idol-worship is not so common as fetish-worship. A fetish is a charm, believed to possess powers through an indwelling spirit. Charms are largely used by Mohammedans as well as pagans. At Brass, in the Niger Delta, a huge snake used to be regarded as a god. Human sacrifices are becoming more uncommon, but are not unknown. Old men and women (not slaves) near the Kongo, if unable to provide food for themselves, are put out into the forest to die. The slave trade has not yet been entirely abolished in East Africa, tho, theoretically at least, it has been stamped out on the West Coast. Sir Lloyd Matthews, the prime minister of the sultan of Zanzibar, estimates the number of slaves in Zanzibar and Pemba, i. e., under the British flag, at 140,000. Slavery has since been prohibited here also, and the queen's diamond Jubilee is to be celebrated by the entire abolition of slavery in the British West African possessions. The drink traffic in West Africa is a terrible curse, and appears to be increasing. In the Niger Coast Protectorate the annual import of spirits increased from 1,300,000 gallons to nearly 2,000,000 when the British Government established a regular administration there. In 1892 the imports of liquor into Lagos amounted to over 1,100,000 gallons; in 1893 they had risen 50 per cent., and in 1894 the quantity was said to be very little short of 2,000,000 gallons. Large public meetings of natives have lately been held to protest against this traffic. The statement that Mohammedans never drink will scarcely bear investigation. A well-known French traveler, a great supporter of Mohammedanism, recently wrote as follows about the Foulahs, who live in the Western Soudan:— "All are Mohammedans without exception, and all are drunken in the fullest acceptance of the word. Towards five o'clock in the evening it is no longer possible to have serious conversation with them; young people, adults, and old men, all are drunk." A native catechist wrote lately concerning the importation of spirits to the Abeokuta:— "It is an enemy within the walls, an enemy that has taken the stronghold of the town, an enemy that has chained our elders, sent into poverty and bondage our young men and young women, filled our streets with broken bottles, filled our homes with desperate and hardened inmates, and peopled hell with souls that might have been saved by the sound of the Gospel."—Missionary Review.