46                          FOREIGN     RELATIONS.

ally they see their error; but their Moslem masters tell them that while
Mussulmans don't feed on human beings, Christians do. Hence their
dread of being left in Malta. The most wretched slave, when asked,
pro forma, by a Maltese policeman, whose whiskers and manners look
ferocious in her estimation, whether she wants to stay in the island, will
answer, terror-stricken, "1 Sidi Stamboul"-  the only two Arabic
words she
knows-that is to say, "Stamboul is my lord, my preference."
        I am, &c.,
                                                                M. VIDAL,


                          [Inclosure 1 in No. 46.-Translation.]

                               Statement by Lueschi.
                            CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES or AMERICA,
                                              Tripoli of Barbary, August
16, 1873.
  I, the undersigned, Mohammed Lueschi, janissary of this consulate of America,
de-
clare, and under my oath affirm, that, on the arrival in Malta of the Ottoman
steamer
Trabulus Gharb, (which happened on the 8th instant,) on board of which I
was, with
other passengers, a marine police-officer of that island came on board, who,
employ-
ing me as interpreter, com'menced to examine one by one the black women who
were
on the steamer, asking them whether they were.free or slaves, and willing
to follow
their masters. The first seven ones thus examined answered that they were
not slaves,
but were following their masters of their own accord. The eighth time the
question
was repeated, a black woman, who had with her a son of about two years of
age, an-
swered that she was a slave, and that it was her intention to stay in Malta,
in order to
be taken back to Tripoli, even should she be cut to pieces for making that
statement.
Upou that declaration the officer suspended his examination, saying that
he was very
busy. I immediately made to him the remark that there were yet seven or eight
more
black women to examine; and he answered, "Do not fear anything; Iam
going away;
but not one of them will go ashore." And so saying, he ordered the captain
to allow
all white people to land, and he himself went away, leaving on board four
policemen. I,
too, staid on the vessel, and noticed that the slave who had made the protest
was left
with her mistress.
  In the course of about half an.hour came the order to allow the black people
to land.
I went along with the latter, and, when on shore, we were told that, at about
2J p. m.,
the police-adjutant would go to the hotel to proceed with the examination.
In the
mean time the black woman who had declared she was a slave was put by her
mis-
tress in her carriage, with her little son, and other black women, among
whom there
was one who, from the first time she heard the statement made by the aforesaid
slave,
had not left her alone for a minute, doing her best to persuade her to take
back her
declaration. We all put up at the same inn, where we arrived at about 8 a.
m.
  At about 2J o'clock p. m. the police-adjutant repaired to that inn, followed
by four
policemen, and having ordered the black women to be presented to him, twelve
only
came along; among them I noticed the one who had declared to be a slave,
albeit
the rich'dress she had then on was very different from the wretched cotton
sheet
in which she was shrouded on board. I and the police people could recognize
this one,
as well as the seven other ones who were examined on board with their faces
unveiled,
but no one could say for certain whether the five other ones were the same
who were
on board, for no one had yet seen their faces.
  Along with those black women there were also white Arabic women and five
Turkish
ones, who had come with us to Malta, and in whose service those black women
were.
At the examination by the police officer there was present Mejbura, a free
negro
woman, who had come with me to Malta, and who on board had assisted nme in
exam-
ining the negroes, for she can speak their language. Said Mejbura, during
the examin-
ation by the police, was several times shoved back by-the mistresses of the
negroes-
a fact to which I called the attention of the police-adjutant, who declared
he was dis-
posed to put a stop to those acts of brutality, hbit in reality he never
did ; and the
same inertion was maintained when I suggested to divide the negroes from
their umis-
tresses, so that the former should feel more independeat in giving their
answers, for
they were all held by the arm by their mistresses.
  I called the police's attention to a black woman, an Algerine named Fatnma,
who had
then adopted the alias of Ejshia; and I informed them that about two months
before
that woman had passed by Malta, taking along to Constantinople a slave whom
she
passed off as her own servant, just the same as now she was passing another
one for