ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
171
3. I also forward the accompanying li.-t of answers (marked B) to the queries, relative
to the disputed claims of their Highnesses, which accmnpanied your letter.
4. With reference to the above answers, I beg to remark on the difficulty that exists
in procuring any testimony on many points that can be relied on. Tliere is litile or no
documentary evidence, as the Arabs very seldom keep any written record of even the most
important affairs. The records of the British Consulate are also very imperfect. For a
considerable period prior to his death, Lieutenant Colonel Hamerton, my predecessor, was
generally incapacitated by severe illness from attending to business. With the exception of
one Arabic and Persian writer, he had no office establishment whatever. The late I lajee
Khaleel, who was the writer alluded to, was also completely worn out by sickness, and died a
few months after my arrival liere. When I took charge of the Consulate in July 1858, I
found no regular files of letters later than 1852, and no index to letters received or forwarded.
During the absence of Lieutenant Colonel Hamerton at Muscat, the Consulate here
remained closed, and in his last visit to that place he was absent from Zanzibar from the
11th of April 1861 to the 3rd of February 1853.
5. The secretary to his Highness Syud Majeed, a Persian, by name Ahmed bin Naaman,
who was for many years the confidential secretary of the late Imam, is now in so feeble a
state of mind and body that he is unable to give any information, and from the experience
1 have acquired of Zanzibar Arabs, I do not think that the slightest reliance can be placed
on the statements of any of them.
6. I will prepare the answers to the second series of queries which accompanied your
letter, and forward them to you as soon as possible.
I have, &c.,
(signed) ^ C. P. Pighy^ Lieutenant Colonel,
Her Majesty’s Consul and British Agent at Zanzibar.
Appendix (A.)
[Translation of the foregoing Arabic Bond.]
In the name of God the Most Merciful.
I, the unworthy Majeed bin Saeed, declare, in respect of the dispute and contention which
have arisen betwixt me and my brother Thoweynee regarding the sovereignty of Zanzibar
and its African dependencies, that I have referred the settlement of the said dispute, and the
termination of the said contention, to his Lordship the Governor General, the' Viceroy
of Her Exalted Majesty in the Government of India. And whatever the said Governor
shall decide, I will accept the same, and I will agree to whatever he may award to me.
This I declare on my affirmation, with an upright mind, and binding myself and my actions
thereto. Let this be known to all. Salaam.
Written by the hand of the unworthy Majeed bin Saeed.
Rabiaa-el-Awwal, 1277.
Wntten and s. aled in my presence, by his Highness Syud Majeed bin Saeed, this 3rd day
of October 1860. •'
(signed) C. P. Rigby, Lieutenant Colonel,
Her Majesty’s Consul at Zanzibar.
(True Translation.)
(signed) George Percy Badger.
Appendix (B.)
Lieutenant Colonel Rigby's Answer to the List of Queries matked A. in Brigadier CoglilarCs
Letter to his Address, No. 12, of 1860.
Q,uery 1. Have you any additional arguments in
sovereignty of Zanzibar and its dependencies?
Amwer.—None.
favour of Syud Majeed to
the
Y 2
Appendix, No. 8,
Appendix (A.)
Appendix (B.)
0.116.
Q. 2.—TFas
