ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 
81 
]204. 
■^-Tliey 
slavery 
^^bour. 
Are there any coffee plantations there ? 
have been nearly all deserted ; since 
was put a stop to they have had no 
1205. Chairman.l All they want is labour 
then?—Yes, there are 37 islands of different 
sizes ; some of them are large, and in those they 
could employ a great many emancipated slaves. 
Major Gen. 
C. P. Pigby, 
25 July 
1871. 
Captain Philip Colomb, r.n., called in; and Examined. 
^ 1206. Sir J. 1: OU were employed for 
considerable time on the East Coast of 
:^lHca in the suppression of the slave trade ?— 
^es. 
1207. ill you state the dates between which 
Joii were so employed?—Between November 
and May 1870. 
1208. Did you visit all the ports along the 
Coast?—Not many ports on the African coast. 
Y'^as employed on the African coast a little, and 
^Iso on the Madagascar coast, but chiefly on the 
^cast of Arabia. 
1209. Did you capture many slavers ?—I cap- 
six. 
1210. Where did you capture them ?—One I 
^^ptured in the Persian Gulf, which, I believe, 
^Vas very rarely done, the remainder I captured 
the coast of Arabia, near lias lYadiaka, 700 
Diles from Aden. 
1211. IVere they all vessels which had come 
^^'cin the neighbourhood of Zanzibar?—All ex- 
^ept the one captured in the Persian Gulf. 
1212. M here had she come from?—She had 
Coine from the south-eastern corner of the golf, 
^^d was crossing to the Persian coast. 
1213. She had nothing to do with the East 
.Cast of Africa slave trade ?—No, except in so 
she was one of the local slave traders which 
Y^Ty slaves, originally from Africa, from the 
®Cuthern coast of the Persian Gulf to the northern 
1214. Have you any suggestions to make to 
Committee with regard to the best mode of 
^Ppressin^ the slave trade on the East Coast of 
B^ca ?—dhe slaves come from various points 
tong the coast of Africa, but they are all 
j ''CRtually concentrated at Pas el Hadd, and by 
Y' icg a sufficient force there to intercept them, it 
to me that the trade could be almost entirely 
jY'bped; to do that, it would be necessary to 
a considerable force, some six or eight ships 
probably from 1,000 to 1,200 tons, each ship 
"Ging well supplied with steam pinnaces or 
..Cam launches. Large ships by themselves at 
. point would be of no avail whatever, because 
slave vessels hug the shore as they come 
and long before any boat can reach them 
gj^cy run ashore and succeed in landing their 
YY® ’ care nothing about the destruction 
W dhow so long as they land their cargo. It 
^jOuld be necessary in intercepting the trade at 
point, to keep your steam launches anchored 
P Y'^tler weigh close in shore so as to interpose a 
g ^ 'between the beach and the vessels; then, in 
N ^ Ciase, every dhow which appeared would 
lu - V ^owmr her sail and give herself up without 
^ fi’ouble. lhat is the chief point as to the 
vYl cy^^ient of the force, but one great disad- 
Gf which the officers commanding the ships 
to f] ®flCîadron labour under is this, that on going 
m .cc station they are not supplied w ith infor- 
to what had gone before; you are 
in command of a ship with orders to sup- 
slave trade, and you have no infbrma- 
^lio-l ^'^‘^.^cver as to how to suppress it; you 
^ cf course have provided yourself with 
some of the Blue Books, but you were not sup 
plied with them, and you were left to gather 
such hearsay information as you could get from 
your brother officers; in fact, about the time you 
w ere leaving the station you were beginning to 
acquire a knowledge of Avhat you might do. 
Then the naval officers are entirely in the hands 
of their interpreters ; they can do nothing with 
out them ; and, so far as I understand, the inter 
preters are not to be depended on ; generally 
speaking, their knowledge of the language is 
imperfect, and it is only by examining and cross- 
examining them very diligently that you can 
really get correct information. 
1215. Are better interpreters to be obtained? 
—I believe not at present, but no doubt in a 
very short time, if they were properly paid, we 
could on tain them. 
1216. Am I right in taking the result of your 
evidence to be that you think it desirable that 
the officers should be employed on the station for 
a longer period, so that they might gain local ex 
perience ?—No ; because I do not think that 
most men can stand more than three years of that 
sort of work in that climate, but I think that they 
should have supplied to them the information 
which has been collected by their predecessors. 
1217. You do not anticipate that more active 
measures or a more numerous squadron in the 
neighbourhood of Zanzibar would have any ma 
terial effect in reducing the slave trade ?—I do 
not think it would have so material an effect as 
dealing with the ports of debarkation. I would 
not say it wmuld have no eflect, but it would not 
have a material effect. 
1218. Did you find great difficulty owing to 
the fact that the home trade in slaves at Zanzibar 
being legal, the foreign slave trade to the Per 
sian Gulf, wms able, under the cover of that, to 
evade the action of the cruisers ?—I think that 
made the greatest difficulty. I think that threw 
a great barrier in the way of dealing with the 
trade about Zanzibar. I think the whole state of 
things would be altered if all slave trade to and 
from Zanzibar were made illegal. 
1219. Do you think it possible to stop it alto 
gether by naval operations so long as that mode 
of evading it is open to the Arab dhows?—No ; 
but I should say that I doubt whether it would 
be possible to stop it altogether by any forcible 
measures. I think the stoppage of it altogether 
must be done by dealing with the authorities at 
the ports of embarkation and at the ports of de 
barkation by means of treaties. 
1220. Would you anticipate any great advan 
tage from treaties?—Yes, because I think when 
armed with a treaty the naval force can act 
more efficiently. The treaty does not act 
so much directly as indirectly by keeping the 
people in fear. I would not trust altogether to 
the moral force of treaties in those cases, but 
treaties give the naval officers a great deal more 
power than they otherwise would have. 
1221. What did you do with those dhows 
which you captured?—AVe destroyed them im 
mediately. 
Captain 
P. Colomb, 
K.N. 
Ml 
1222. All