It is taken for granted that our relations, as Europeans with Asia, are those, as it were, between a son and his mother, the latter possessing a certain amount of superstition, with which she finds it difficult to part. From Asia we received our descent, mentally and materially, as well as our education, but nobody would reproach us with ingratitude or want of respect, if we reject the views and opinions of "our aged parent," and for her own benefit occasionally press upon her our ideas instead. I use purposely the expression "press upon," for whatever has been adopted of European civilisation in Asia up to the present day, has not been the result, either of conviction or a liking for our social relations, but simply that of fear. A forced love never lasts, and were we to base our speculations as to the future of the whole of Asia upon the changes hitherto effected in western Asia, they would inevitably prove fallacious. CHAPTER XIII. THE SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVE LIFE IN CENTRAL ASIA. The last cannon-shot fired by the victorious champions of the Union against their seceding brethren, although it has not entirely put an end to the slave trade in the Western hemisphere, has nevertheless dealt it a very severe blow. The flag of Great Britain in the waters of Eastern Africa and the recent conquest of the whole Caucasus by the Russians have, to a great extent, crippled the same abominable traffic among the Mohammedans of Western Asia. The indolent, enervated Orientals may still regard with bitter resentment and rancour the efforts of Europe in the cause of humanity; but the sale and purchase of human beings is everywhere practised with a certain reserve arising from a sense of shame, or, to speak more correctly, of fear of European eyes. This trade is now to be found unfettered and unembarrassed only in Central Asia. Here, in the ancient seat of Asiatic barbarism and ferocity, thousands every year fall victims to this inhuman trade. These victims are not negroes, occupying the lowest place in the human race, but belong to a nation celebrated now, as of old, for its culture and civilisation. These not only exchange freedom for slavery, but at the same time the comforts of comparative civilisation for the miseries of semi-savage life, and are torn from their smiling homes to pine away in the desert. The lot of such captives is even harder than that of the negro. Inasmuch as to this day Europeans have had very little information with respect to the miserable state of things which prevails in the distant regions of Central Asia, it may not be out of place if I here recount my own experiences of them somewhat in detail.