And the writer adds:  “The people of the States to the south of Futa Djallon are pagans, and Samadu makes their religion a pretext for his outrages.  He is desirous, he says, of converting them to the ’True Faith,’ and his modes of persuasion are murder and slavery.  What could be more horrible than the story just brought down by the messengers who were with Major Festing?  Miles of road strewn with human bones; blackened ruins where were peaceful hamlets; desolation and emptiness where were smiling plantations.  What has become of the tens of thousands of peaceful agriculturists, their wives and their innocent children?  Gone; converted, after Samadu’s manner, to the ‘True Faith.’  And thus the conversion of West Africa to Islamism goes merrily on, while dilettante scholars at home complacently discuss the question as to whether that faith or Christianity is the more suitable for the Negro; and the British people, dead to their generous instincts of old, make no demand that such deeds of cruelty and horror shall be arrested with a strong hand."[117]

Similar accounts of the African propagandism of Islam might be given in the very words of numerous travellers and explorers, but one or two witnesses only shall be summoned to speak of the Mohammedan dominion and civilization in East Africa.  Professor Drummond, in giving his impressions of Zanzibar, says:  “Oriental in its appearance, Mohammedan in its religion, Arabian in its morals, a cesspool of wickedness, it is a fit capital to the Dark Continent.”  And it is the great emporium—­not an obscure settlement, but the consummate flower of East African civilization and boasting in the late Sultan Bargash, an unusually enlightened Moslem ruler.  Of the interior and the ivory-slave trade pursued under the auspices of Arab dominion the same author says:  “Arab encampments for carrying on a wholesale trade in this terrible commodity are now established all over the heart of Africa.  They are usually connected with wealthy Arab traders at Zanzibar and other places on the coast, and communication is kept up by caravans, which pass at long intervals from one to the other.  Being always large and well-supplied with the material of war, these caravans have at their mercy the feeble and divided native tribes through which they pass, and their trail across the continent is darkened with every aggravation of tyranny and crime.  They come upon the scene suddenly; they stay only long enough to secure their end, and disappear only to return when a new crop has arisen which is worth the reaping.  Sometimes these Arab traders will actually settle for a year or two in the heart of some quiet community in the remote interior.  They pretend perfect friendship; they molest no one; they barter honestly.  They plant the seeds of their favorite vegetables and fruits—­the Arab always carries seeds with him—­as if they meant to stay forever.  Meantime they buy ivory, tusk after tusk, until great piles of it are