VISIT TO A TURKISH SLAVE MARKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 392, 16 August 1869, Page 2

VISIT TO A TURKISH SLAVE MARKET.

A correspondent of our London namesake writes as follows : — At present I am assisting Air Cook in his great tour to the East, the particulars of ■which will be duly published on the completion of the excursion. With a party of fifty ladies and gentlemen we hare visited Egypt and Palestine, and are now en route for Constantinople. We arrived in the Austrian Lloyd's steamer Saturno in the Bay of Smyrna yesterday, and to-day, being anxious to attend the religious service at the church of the English Consulate, I spoke to a guide who proffered his services, and suggested that after . the church service we should go and see and hear the dancing and howling dervishes, and also visit the slave market. After the services of the church, a party of

us, under the leadership of our guide, passed along Frank street, and then turned up through the bazaars and the Persian market, and on till we passed through a kind of gateway, in which several Turks were smoking. Here we found a moderately-sized square, surrounded by a number of low buildings ; a few Turks were lounging about, and two or three boys as black as ebony stood eyeing us with considerable curiositr ; but there was nothing to indicate the existence of a slave market— it might have been a market for any other commodity. Our guide, however, went to, a door in the corner of the square, about which several people were standing, and some black boys were engaged packing Turkish butter in tubs. We entered, and then we found ourselves in the presence of a slave-owner and his slaves. The man-stealer was a 6tout, sensuous, lazylooking Turk, about sixty years of age, sitting wrapped up in costly Eastern robes, with the everlasting pipe in his mouth. The slaves consisted of five women and two boys. Three of the women were comparatively young, ranging from 19 to 24 years old, the other two about 30, and the boys about 13 or 14. The women were sitting, Turkish fashion, on a broad divan or platform, and the boys were packing butter. All were as black as ravens. "We were asked to sit down, and coffee was immediately brought to us. One of the girls was remarkably good-looking, had on a good dress, and with necklace of beadg and long gilt eardrops made some pretension to style; and the others were very passable as negresses from our European stand-point of beauty. Another Turk came in and took his place near the proprietor, and a few words of English. We asked, through our guide, what was the price of the best-looking of the girls. The old man told us £300, and ordered her to stand up, which she immediately did, showing a fine form and an erect position. Whenltook out my pencil and paper to note the price, they all seemed to exhibit considerable interest in my visit; the price of the other two young women was £250 each, and that of the two elder, who were strongly built, £300; and that of the two boys was £350 each, but our guide told us that if we offered £80 we might have either of the boys, and a like reduction on the price of the women. Two of the women stood up for our inspection. Our guide, who was a native of Smyrna, told us that if wo purchased any of them we should receive papera from the Government, transferring the property to our possession, and it was with difficulty that we could make them understand that the paper would be of no value as soon as the slave and master reached the British dominions. After giving them a little " backshish," we left the dirty den with our hatred of Eastern abominations very much intensified. We then went and saw an exhibition of howling and dancing derviahe3, and were complimented by a party of Greeks, who were watching- the antics of the dervishes, that those were our friends the I Turks. I confess, as an Englishman, I can feel nothing but shame for our national friendship for the Turkish Government and its institutions. We were told that after the Crimean war slavery disappeared ; but it is gradually spreading again, and in a country the Government of which is as corrupt as rottenness can make it, and whose officers from the highest to the lowest bow blindfolded before the power of " backshish," it is no wonder that slavery should spread. | We spent on the Crimean war millions of money, and sacrificed the life-blood of thousands of our countrymen to maintain the independence and integrity of a nation whose Government and institutions are a curse to the world and a scandal to the age. John Rdnct. Smyrna, April 18. P.S. — Constantinople, April 23. — I purposely kept my letter open till I reached this city, so that I might make further inquiries into the subject. I have conversed with a gentleman long resident in Constantinople, and well acquainted with Turkish institutions and laws. He assures me that a large slave trade is carried on, that the Circassians sell their children for the Turkish market, and scarcely a ship arrives from Treblzond or Egypt without bringing some ; that some of the Circassian girls will at times fetch £1000, but the Africans are very cheap ; that if a gentleman wants to buy a slave he sends for a slave broker, who takes his order for the kind of article that he requires, and then goes to the depot where they are kept My friend accompanied me yesterday to the principal street in Galata, where there the Circassians are kept, and snowed me the establishments with thickly trellised windows. The African market is across the Golden Horn in Stainboul. He, however, informed me of two modifications in the system. The first is, that the traffic is only legal among the Moslems, that Franks can neither buy nor sell ; and, secondly, that the slave has the option of refusing to go with any buyer; but if the slave does not object, a legal trans* ference is made, and the fate of the unfortunate finally sealed. The first modification does not alter the principle of the".wicked system, and the second cannot be or much value to a poor lonely, friendless Txctiuij whose body belongs to a mercenary and, It may be, cruel speculator. .•