SLAVERY 95 " a feature of the war then waged was this form of slavery, that it furnished much mat- ter for the romantic literature of southern Eu- rope, in which nothing is more common than incidents connected with bondage in Barbary. Cervantes himself was for five years an Alge- rine captive, and he formed a project for a slave insurrection, there being 25,000 enslaved Christians at that time in Algiers alone. Enor- mous numbers of captives were employed as rowers of galleys, Christians on board those of the Mussulmans and Mussulmans on board Christian vessels. When the Turks lost the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, 12,000 Christian captives, galley slaves, were released from the prizes made by the allied fleet. When Charles V. took Tunis, in 1535, 20,000 Christians were released from slavery. Great numbers of wo- men were taken as slaves, and sold in the mar- kets of Turkey and Barbary. The corsairs passed out of the Mediterranean, sailed far to the north, and seized people on the coast of Ireland. This brought upon them punishment from the English, but that did not put an end to their Atlantic cruising. There were some places in Barbary on the Atlantic from which corsairs sailed, and those of Sal6 were among the most famous of the brotherhood. The Eu- ropean powers made frequent war on the Bar- bary states ; and of the early contests in which the American Union was engaged none were more brilliant than those which it carried on with some of those states, in defence of the berty and commerce of its citizens. But the ousies of the European powers prevented them from putting an end to the piracy and slavery of Barbary long after the Turks had ceased to be able to protect the corsairs, and tribute was paid to the petty powers down to the beginning of the 19th century. The suc- cessful bombardment of Algiers in 1816, by an English fleet commanded by Lord Exmouth, put an end to white slavery in Barbary, it having previously ceased to exist in the other countries of N. Africa, to which the exploits of the American navy had. much contributed, though at first the government of the United States had paid tribute to the pirate chiefs. At the same time that slavery was acquiring its peculiar form in the countries on the Med- iterranean, negro or African slavery came into existence. This form of slavery belongs en- tirely to modern times. As we know, the slave trade in negroes existed 3,000 years ago at least, and the Carthaginians brought numbers of black slaves from central and southern Af- rica, by means of their caravan commerce, a mode of traffic that was common long before the Carthaginians had a political existence; but in trading in negroes, the slave traders of antiquity only did that which they did with all other descriptions of men, and as the slave traders of the East have always done until now. The fact that the ancients regarded black slaves as luxuries, proves that their num- ber could not have been large in the European 747 VOL. xv. 7 countries to which they were taken, either by the way of Egypt or that of Carthage. Such details as we have concerning the black slaves of antiquity all serve to show that they were not numerous, far less so indeed than were slaves belonging to some of the highest of the white races. They were probably more numer- ous in the East than in Greece and Italy, and most numerous of all in Egypt and other parts of N. Africa, because of the comparative ease of acquiring them in those countries. The Venetians, who carried on a large trade with Africa, no doubt distributed some negro slaves over the various European nations which they visited. In the Mohammedan countries there have been black slaves from the time of the prophet, and they have often risen very high, as well in the state as in the household. But in all these cases the negro has but shared the common lot, and might have been sold on the same day with the Greek or the Arab, and by the same trader. The negro was then sold, not because he was a negro, but because he was a man whose services could be turned to profitable account. Negro slavery, in its spe- cial form, is one of the consequences of that grand movement in behalf of maritime dis- covery and commerce which began in the 15th century. Portugal took the lead in this move- ment, which was already prominent more than four centuries ago ; and it was headed in that country by Prince Henry, son of John I. In 1441 two of Prince Henry's captains seized some Moors, who were taken to Portugal. The next year these Moors were allowed to ran- som themselves, and among the goods given in exchange for them were ten black slaves, whose appearance in Portugal excited general astonishment, and who led the van of the African slave trade. This was openly com- menced in 1444, by a company formed at La- gos ; and though it is doubtful whether that company was formed expressly to trade in men, and it is by no means certain that the 200 persons whom its agents seized and brought to Europe were negroes, it is from that time that the negro trade is generally dated. The first negroes taken by the Portuguese in the negro country were but four in number, in 1445, and they were rather taken accidentally than of set purpose to make them slaves ; but the trade in negroes as slaves was quickly regulated, and a Portuguese factory was estab- lished in one of the Arguin islands, where the slave trade had been commenced. Every year 700 or 800 black slaves were sent from this factory to Portugal, while other slaves of the same description from the countries that furnished those sent to Portugal were sold to other traders, who took them to Tunis and to Sicily. But Prince Henry and those who fol- lowed in his path did not regard the trade in slaves as a thing to be encouraged. They thought rather of the conversion of the Afri- cans to Christianity, both the Portuguese and Spanish discoverers being enthusiastic propa-
