[ 1 
MmUTES OF 
EVIDENCE- 
Monday, \Oth July 1871. 
MEMBERS PRESENT : 
Sir Robert Anstruther. 
Lord Frederick Cavendish. 
Vicount Enfield. 
Mr. Cruin-Ewin^. 
Mr. Gilj)in. 
Sir John Hay. 
Mr. Kenn away. 
Mr. Kinnaird. 
Mr. O’Conor. 
Sir Frederick Williams. 
CHARLES GILPIN, Esq., in the Chair. 
The Honourable Crespigny Vivian, called in; and Examined. 
C/¿atrma?h] I believe you have been for a 
considerable time connected with the Foreign 
Office ?—For 19 years. 
fb connected with that department ol 
^ ^ oreign Office which takes cognisance oi 
atters in connection with the slave trade?— 
cSj I am senior clerk in charge of the slave 
Hade department. 
have seen the terms of reference to 
^ Committee ?—1 have. 
nil 4*1 state of affairs at Zanzibar and 
+1. m ^ Coast of Africa, with respect to the 
a C m slaves at the present time as far as you 
know ?—SWery in the first place is legal in 
Zanzibar. The sovereign of Zanzibar is an Arab, 
and his subjects are Arabs, and as such they 
consider there is no harm in slavery at all. By 
however, the export of slaves 
n Zanzibar to foreign countries, and also from 
anzibar to the dominions of the Imaum of Muscat 
tn t 4^^' prohibited, but slaves are still allowed 
J)lbe tramg)ort(xl ifom the coast to the islands 
f . certain limits, for domestic puiioses ; in 
^ ’ w/ consider that as slave trade, 
re^npct m ^ existing laws of Zanzibar with 
ThLe nro* the transport of slaves ?— 
memm 
3i's:sE.?s 
Zanzibar affecting the slave trade ?—There have 
been several treaties; the first was in 1820 with 
the friendly Arab tribes on the Persian Gulf. 
By that treaty 'Gt is provided that the carryino- off 
of slaves, men, women, and children, from *^the 
coasts of Africa, or elsewhere, and the transport 
ing them in vessels, is plunder and piracy, and 
the friendly Arabs shall do nothing of this 
nature.” That was the first treaty. There was 
then a treaty with the Imaum of Muscat (Muscat 
and Zanzibar being then under one sovereign) in 
1822, and a further one in 1839, but it is hardly 
worth while referring to them, because they were 
niuchstronger treaty in October 
1845, which IS the treaty to which we now appeal, 
lhat was signed by Captain Hamerton, who 
was our agent at Muscat, and Syud Saeed, who 
was Sultan^ of Muscat and Zanzibar. By that 
treaty the Sultan engaged to prohibit for himself. 
Ins heirs, and successors under the severest penaL 
ties, the export of slaves from his African domi- 
nions, and for the first time renounced for ever 
the right of importing slaves from any part of 
Aiiica into his possessions in Asia, into Arabia, 
the Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, and engaged to 
i^e his influence with the chiefs there to prevent 
t e introduction of slaves into their respective 
teiiitories. Up to that time, he had always main 
tained the right to carry on the traffic between his 
dominions in Arabia and his dominions in Africa 
but for the firat time in this treaty he renounced 
that light. He gave permission to his Maiesty’s 
CTuisers, as well as to those of the East India 
Company, to seize and confiscate his vessels car 
rying on the slave trade wherever found, except 
ing those engaged in transporting slaves from one 
poit to another of his African dominions, between 
the limits of Lanioo to the north and Kilwa to 
^ the 
Hon. 
C* Vivian. 
10 July 
1871.