[19] Mr. Richardson interchanges the words _razzia_ and _gazia_; the latter, I imagine, is the correct word, but the former is better known to European readers.--ED.
In the afternoon I was informed that the Sarkee was really about to enter the town.
Expecting to see other captives, and anxious to be an eye-witness to all these atrocities attendant on the razzia, I went to see him pass with his cavalry. After waiting ten minutes, there rode up single cavaliers, then lines of horsemen, all galloping towards the castle-gates to show the people their equestrian skill; then came a mass of cavalry, about fifty, with a drum beating, and in the midst of these was the sultan. There was nothing very striking in this cavalcade; a few cavaliers had on a curious sort of helmet, made of brass, with a kind of horn standing out from the crown; others wore a wadding of woollen stuff, a sort of thin mattrass, in imitation of a coat of mail. Its object is to turn the points of the poisoned arrows. The cavaliers thus dressed form the body-guard of the Sarkee. Amongst these troops were some Bornou horsemen, who rode with more skill than the Zinder people. The best cavaliers resembled as much as possible the Arab cavaliers of the north. There were no captives with these horsemen; the slaves had only come in to the number, it was said, of some two or three thousand during the day. Although I wished to see them, I was, nevertheless, spared a repetition of the misery and indignation which the sight in the morning produced in my mind. I have been told positively that the poor old creatures brought in with the other captives will not fetch a shilling a-head in the slave-market. It is, therefore, a refinement of cruelty not to let them die in their native homes,--to tear them away to a foreign soil, and subject them to the fatigues of the journey, and the insults of a rude populace, and ruder and crueller slave-dealers. Many die on the road during the two or three days' march.
It is exceedingly painful to live in a place like Zinder, where almost every householder has a chained slave. The poor fellows (men and boys) cannot walk, from the manner in which the irons are put on, and when they move about are obliged to do so in little jumps. These slaves are ironed, that they may not run away. There are many villages and towns, a few days from Zinder, to which they can escape without difficulty, and where they are not pursued. It was exceedingly horrifying to hear the people of Zinder salute the troops of the razzia on their return with the beautiful Arabic word, _Alberka_, "blessing!" Thus is it that human beings sometimes ask God for a blessing on transactions which must ever be stamped with his curse. The Italian bandit also begs the Virgin to bless his endeavours. It is evident that nothing but the strong arm of power and conquest will ever root out the curse of slavery from Africa.