ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
113
8. Further, it is equally certain, consirlering the penalties attached by the Portuguese Appendix, No. 7.
Government to any participation in the foreign slave trade, that such transactions could !
not be carried on in their African territories without the countenance of the local authoriti(
g. Their connivance is fully known to all the Arab and other traders on the coast, and
I found the concurrent testimony in perfect accord with the statement of Colonel Bigby,
that at the “ Portuguese settlements the slave trade is carried on in the most shameless
“ manner, all the Portuguese authorities aiding and abetting it, and dividing their nefarious
gains.’'
9. Moreover, by all accounts, the cruelties of the traffic in the hands of the Portuguese
equal in atrocity those so well known to accompany it on the Western Coast, and its late
increase among them is fast desiroying the last faint traces of civilisation left in their once
prosperous settlements on the East Coast of Africa. Large tracts of fertile country are
becoming depopulated, and the remains of the serai-barbarous tribes in the neighbourhood
are being driven to a state of desperation, which threatens at no distant period to be the
scourge and ruin of their degenerate and inhuman masters.
10. It will be for Her Majesty’s Ministers to decide on the pro|niety of bringing to the
notice of the Portuguese Government the culpable conduct of its representatives on the East
Coast i.f Africa in thus fostering the slave trade. But if, as is to be feared, no permanently
favourable result is likely to follow any such intervention, owing to the weakness of the
Imperial Government, and the utter disorganisation of its East African settlements, I venture
to urge that no time be lost in strengihening the Cape squadron with a sufficient number of
steam vessels, specially adapted for the service, to watch the Portuguese coast from Delagoa
Bay to Cape Delgado. The fertile and salubrious island of Johanna, three degrees south
of Delgado, witl\ its secure anchorage, and its reigning sultan decidedly favourable to our
interests, would form an eligible haven for the cruisers on the north ; whilst the hitherto
neglected British possession of the southern portion of Delagoa Bay might constitute a
convenient station for those destined to watch the line of Portuguese coast from that point
to the mouths of the Zambesi.
11. I believe the opinion is gaining ground that the notorious insalubrity of the Portuguese
town of Lorenço Marques, near Delagoa Bay, is not so much owing to the climate
of that portion of Africa as to its ill-chosen site. On the other hand Iniack Island, forming
the southern arm of the bay, and within British limits, is represented as being a very
healthy spot, entirely beyond the poisonous miasmata of the adjacent rivers, and frequently
resorted to by the natives as a sanatarium. It appears to me desirable, independently of
the suggestion contained in the foregoing paragraph, that a fair trial should be made of the
climate of this locality. The position is admirably adapted for trade, whilst the two navigable
rivers in its immediate neighbourhood, the Mapoota and the Manice, are said to give
access to the Zula country and to the territories of the Transvaal Bepublic. Should the
result be favourable, Iniack Island would bid fair to become an important commercial
emporium, whilst the adjoining country of Tembe (also British territory), might afford an
eligible settlement whereon to locate the slaves captured by our cruisers on the coast. In
short, the healthiness of the climate once proved, a British station in Delagoa Bay might
occupy, on this side of Africa, a position analogous to that of Sierra Leone on the Western
Coast ; and should the scheme proposed be found feasible, benevolent societies at home would
not be backward to crown the humane efforts of the Government, in behalf of the liberated
Africans, by corresponding endeavours to impart to them the blessings of a Christian
civilisation.
12. In the event, however, of Delagoa Bay being found unadapted for the object here
suggested, there are fortunately several other British settlements in these seas where any
number of liberated slaves might find a ready asylum, together with the means of obtaining
their own livelihood, as well as of being at the same time within the reach of Christian
instruction, ^atal, 25Ö miles to the south, is in urgent want of labourers. The Seychelles,
with their rich soil, are comparatively waste from the same cause; and the Mauritius, where
the 800 slaves lately captured by Her Majesty’s ship Brisk ” were gladly received, could
find remunerative employment for some additional thousands of workmen on the prosperous
sugar plantations of that island.
13. If I hesitate to apologise for the foregoing suggestions touching the disposal of slaves
captured by our cruisers on the east coast of Afiica, it is owing to the conviction that they
will not be regarded as superflu us, and that Her Majesty’s Government is as deeply interested
in the after condition and welfare of such as acquire their freedom by British intervention,
as it is in rescuing them, in the first instance, from the miseries of an inhuman
bondage.
14. But if the suppression of slavery in the Portuguese settlements is an object most
desirable in itself, its importance is enhanc ed in view of any attempt on our part to abolish
the traffic in the adjoining African territories dependent on Zanzibar. The fact of a neighbouring
Christian people, known to be extensively engaged in the trade, is at once a precedent
and a strong ground of apology to the slave-dealing Mahomedans. No formal aixfiiment,
indeed, is based on that plea; but hints as to our consistency in so strongly uro-mothem
to forego the practice, and doubts as to the disinterestedness of our motives in the
Solicitation, whilst our co-religionists are allowed to pursue the same course with compa-0.116.
P rative
