ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 
121. 
Query 4.—Has the so-called French Free-labour Emigration Trade” ceased to carry Appendix, No, 7. 
on its operations on the east coast of Africa? I have been given to understand that the 
scheme was abolished by order of the French Government; have you received any official 
intimation oí the fact? 
Answer.—For about a year past I have only heard of one French vessel being engaged 
in the so-called “ Free Labour Emigration Trade.” When Her Majesty’s ship ‘‘ Brisk” 
was at Johanna, in the month of December last, a French vessel arrived there filled with 
negroes which were being conveyed to La Reunion. Within the last few days I have 
received information that French vessels are again engaging labourers at Mozambique; but 
as it is only from native reports, I do not yet know whether the information is correct. I. 
have not received any official intimation of the abolition by order of the French Govern 
ment of the so-called free-labour” system. I saw in the public journals the order of the 
French minister of Algeria and the Colonies, dated the öth January 1859, directing the 
Governor of La Reunion to adopt the most stringent measures to forbid any engagement 
of labourers either on the eastern coast of Africa or at Madagascar, or at the Comoros, as 
well as the importation into La Reunion of immigrants from those places, or from Sainte 
Marie, Mayotte, and Nossi Beh. 
Query 5.—What measures would you deem advisable and most effectual for arresting 
the trade in slaves on the line of coast above referred to? 
Answer.—In the Portuguese territories on the east coast the export of slaves is carried 
on in direct violation of the treahes, and contrary to the laws of Portugal, its causes are, 
the dishonesty of the officials and the demoralised state of the half-caste inhabitants; 
they set the laws and orders of the sovereign at defiance. ï understand that the Home 
Government of Portugal affords no pecuniary support to its East African possessions, and 
that all the employés, including the Governor General, are dependent on the colonial trea 
sury for their salaries. The treasury is under the control of a council, and the Governor 
General is very much dependent on it. The blighting rule of the Portuguese has almost 
entirely destroyed all legitimate trade, and they are therefore very much dependent on the 
slave trade for their support. Until an entire change of system takes place in the mode of 
government of these possessions, no hope exists of the slightest effort being made by the 
Portimuese colonial authorilies to check the slave traffic, for they all connive at it, and 
receive large bribes for doing so. The position of the Governor General of the Mozam 
bique witirregard to this traffic is very similar to that of the Sultan of Zanzibar ; both are 
surrounded by such unprincipled rogues, that however they may themselves desire to sup 
press it, they could not depend upon a single individual to carry out their orders or act 
honestly : thus, so far as regards the line of coast belonging to Portugal, the only hope of 
any successful efforts being made for the suppression of this cruel traffic rests upon the 
British cruisers. I state an opinion that I have heard expressed by many officers of Her 
Majesty’s navy employed on the east coast, that the class of vessels at present employed in 
cruising for slavers is not at all adapted to the service now that the slaves are generally 
exported in very swift sailing clipper-built ships. The pivof of this is found in the fact 
that no square-rigged vessel engaged in the slave trade on the east coast of Africa has been 
captured by one of Her Majesty’s cruisers during six years preceding the last few months, 
since which Her Majesty’s ship “ Lyra ” lias captured two, and the “ Brisk one slaver. 
As far as I am competent to form an opinion on such a subject, it appears to me that a few 
fast screw gnu-boats of light draught, under active officers, would soon render the slave 
trade on this coast an unprofitable speculation, and lead to its abandonment by the 
Cuban Spaniards, who are chiefly engaged in it. Should this subject engage the attention 
of Her Majesty’s Government, I believe no oflicer is more capable of forming a correct 
opinion on the best means to be adopted than Commander Oldfield, r. n., commanding 
Her Majesty’s ship “ Lyra,” who has had more experience and been more successful iu 
making captures than any other officer. 
With respect to the export of slaves from the Zanzibar dominions, daily experience more 
and more convinces me of the utter impotence of the Sultan to stop it, and that the treaties 
for the suppression of the slave trade entered into by the late Irnâin and the British Go 
vernment are now, and always have been, practically null and void. I have arrived at this 
opinion by slow conviction. When T first carne to Zanzibar the consulate had been closed 
for 14 months, and every soul in the country was interested in concealing the slave traffic 
fromme. Shortly after disturbances commenced which lasted for several im ntlis, and 
during this time I made every allowance for the many instances of illegal slave dealing 
which came to my notice. But subsequent experience has fully proved to me that a very 
extensive export of slaves from the Zanzibar territories still is, and always has been, carried 
on, not only in dhows and coasting craft to the Persian Gulf and coast of Arabia, but also 
in French and American built ships, under the Spanish and Mexican flags, to Cuba and 
other places. However desirous the Sultan may be to fulfil his treaty engagements and 
put a stop to this traffic, he has in reality no power. No one in his service will carry out 
any orders he may give on the subject. The public opinion of the Arabs is too strong in 
favour of it, and almost all the chief people in his dominions are either directly or indirectly 
concerned in it. Soon after my arrival in Zanzibar the French consul showed me the copy 
of a Despatch which he had forwarded to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which 
he stated, as a proof of all the Zanzibar chiefs being in favour of the foreign slave trade, that 
Prince Abdool Wahab, the younger brother of the Sultan, and Syud Suleiman bin Hamed, 
the wealthy Governor of the town of Zanzibar, had recently sold 300 slaves each to a 
French ship. I afterwards discovered that the ship to which he alluded was the “ Pallas,” 
0.116. Q and