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APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE 
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Appendix, No. 7. The returns of the Zanzibar custom house show the import of slaves during the year 
1859 to have amounted to 19,000. The duty levied is now two dollars per head ; so that 
the loss the abolition of the traffic would cause to the revenue of (he Sultan would amount 
to about 38,000 crowns, or 8,5007. sterling per annum. 
(signed') 
British Consulate, Zanzibar, 
5 October 1860. 
C. P. Rigfjy, Lieut. Colonel, 
Her Majesty’s Consul, Zanzibar. 
Resolution by the Honourable Board, dated the 28th March 1861. 
Resolved, 
Brigadier Coghlan sent a copy of this interesting report to Her Majesty’s Secretary 
of State for India before he sent the original to tliis Government. The subjects to which 
Brigadier Coghlan has drawn attention involve questions which are for the decision of 
Her Majesty’s Government, and the Honourable the Governor in Council feels confident 
that the complete and lucid statement submitted by that officer will obtain an earnest con 
sideration. It is merely as a matt-r of form that this Government records any observations 
on this report. 
2. The Honourable the Governor in Council is certain that the details furnished by 
Brigadier Coghlan, as to the extent to which the slave trade is carried on, on the east coast 
of Africa, will convince the British Government, which has ever been the chief instrument 
by which Providence has curbed this inhuman traffic, that its work is net yet completed, 
and that a great evil has still to be encountered and subdued. 
3. Brigadier Coghlan places one fact prominently before the British Government, that 
however much the ruler of Zanzibar may be disposed to fall in with the views of modern 
civilization on the subject of the slave trade, lie is almost entirely unable to resist the 
influences around him. It is too much to expect a chief with a disputed title, who must 
therefore endeavour to conciliate his subjects, sternly to oppose a system from wliich he derives 
a considerable portion of bis revenue, when every man around him is a slave crimp or a slave 
broker. Advice and remonstrance are excellent instruments for good, in proper times and 
places, but they are of singular feebleness, when addressed to one in the helpless position of 
the Sultan of Zanzibar. Ihe British Government must be prepared to support the Sultan by 
its ships and by iis money, the strengthening of the Cape fleet, and the frequent extension of 
its surveillance to Zanzibar and the adjacent African coast, the stationing of gun-bcats at 
Zanzibar, and the grant of com; ensation to the Sultan for the revenue he will sacrifice, are 
measures which ¡t would be presumptuous in this Government to advocate. The Honour 
able the Governor in Council, cannot for a moment doubt that if the horrors described by 
an officer so cautious as Brigaoier Couhlan, were made known to the British nation, not a 
voice w ould be raised against so >mall an acknowledgment to Zanzibar as 8,5001, per 
annum, for the attainment of so noble an object as the extinction of the East African slave 
trade. 
5. The Honourable the Governor in Council, fully concurs with Brigadier Ccghlan as to 
the propriety of obtaining a revision of the treaty, by which all export and import of slaves 
within the Zanzibar dominions should be prohibited. The permission vvhicli now exists for 
the transport of slaves from one portion of Her Majesty’s territories to another, in a great 
measure deprives the restrictions on the trade of all their value. 
6. TV itil respect fo the Pe rsian Gulf, the Honourable the Governor in Council believes 
that the defect in the action of the squadron for the suppression of the slave trade, has 
been that operations have been carrieci on loo much within the Gulf, instead of at the month, 
and that the proper lime for operations has not been chosen with sufficient care. The 
squadron is small, and many duties are imposed on it, and the Honourable the Governor in 
Council tears that the Resident detaches vessels fium it on political raii-sions, at the time 
when every vessel that can be spared should be on the h ok out for slavers returning 
from A (rica at the mouth of the Gulf. The Honourab e the Governor in Council will not, 
however, at present i-sue orders on this subject, as from a r ceni teleeram, it would appear 
that Her Majesty’s Goveinment has determ ned to relieve the Inaian navy from the duty 
of suppressing the slave trade. His Excellency in Council has no doubt that the evil, 
though now ii appears so formidable, would in a very few years succumb to the vigorous 
exertions of an oigauisation directed expressly against it, under the guidance of a carefully 
selected officer. 
7. The Honourable the Governor in Council concurs with Brigadier Coghlan m consider 
ing (hat if the prohiintion of transport of slaves from one ponionef the Zanzibar dominions 
to another is insisted on, three years’ warning should be given before the prohibition is 
enforced. 
28 March 1861. (signed) G. Clerk. 
H. W. Reeves. 
W. P. Frere.