3 
OX SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 
18. You are acquainted, I presume, with the 
statements of Dr. Livingstone with respect 
to the slave traffic ?—Yes ; and we considered 
his book very much in connection with our 
Report. 
Have his statements been confirmed by 
the information you have collected at the office ? 
Yes, certainly, we have found them generally 
very trustworthy. 
20. You have stated that the limits within 
which the export of slaves is recognised from one 
port to another on the coast, are Lamoo on the 
iiorth, and Kihva on the south ?—Yes, that in 
cludes a coast line of about 350 miles. 
21. Have those limits been pretty much kept 
. to, or have they been overstepped ?—They are, 
Û0 doubt, constantly overstepped. 
22. The line on each side is, of course, only 
‘Oiaginary line?—Yes. 
23. What is the approximate annual export of 
^aves from the dominions of the Sultan of 
Zanzibar ?—We estimated it in our Report at 
-0,000 a year, but it may be more. I was 
looking at Dr. Kirk’s returns, in which he 
says, as I understand him, that between 1867 
and 1868 the Sultan got 270,000 dollars for his 
tax upon slaves ; if that is the case, that amounts 
to about 56,000/.; we only calculated it at 20,000 /. 
a year on 20,000 slaves. 
24. You suspect that the number would be 
double/ — T es, upon that calculation; but I am 
îlot quite sure whether Dr. Kirk included in that 
the sale of slaves as well as the tax ; you can 
safely take it at 20,000, it certainly is not less. 
25. Have you any reason to doubt the state- 
^leut made by Dr. Kirk, and confirmed by Dr. 
Livingstone and the Rev. Mr. Waller, that four 
or five lives are lost for every slave delivered safe 
at Zanzibar ?—I have no reason to doubt it, and 
fhe hardships the slaves encounter become greater 
every year. As the country near the coast 
oecoines depopulated, and the slave hunters have 
o go further into the interior for slaves, so does 
he march become more horrible and deadly to 
the slaves. 
f ' Hr. lù'nnaird.] From the last accounts, how 
ai does it appear that the slaves are now brought ^ 
jy-Accor ding to the last accounts they are brought 
from Lake Kyassa. 
27. Have you any idea what the distance would 
he . —No ; several days’journey. 
, 28. C/imrman.^ The plea on which the recog 
nised slave traffic is carried on is, that there is°a 
certain amount of labour required in Zanzibar 
and the adjoining islands, and that slaves are 
■wanted for that purpose?—That is the case. 
*" 11 1 your idea of the number that 
^ actually required for that purpose ?— 
1. Kirk estimates the requirements of Zanzibar 
at about 1,7m per year. 
. Ai/i?iaird.] Nominally for domestic ser- 
vice. — ies, there is nothing but slave labour in 
anzi ai all the menial offices connected with the 
household are performed by slaves ; free labour 
can hardly be obtained. 
31 Theie is no peculiar qualification required 
or that service ?--No; they aie employed in 
ynous ivorhs and drawing water, and in all the 
Usual labour in a household. 
CAa/rwmii.] How do you account for the 
aitterence between the 1,7()0 and the 20,000?— 
-Most of the others go to the foreign slave trade, 
cp. ’r us far as female slaves are con- 
erned they are, to a great extent, taken to the 
U.116. 
harems of the Imaum of Muscat and the Arabian 
chiefs ?—I believe that most of the slaves are 
taken to Muscat itself and Soor, and from thence 
they are exported to various ports on the Persian 
Gulf, and to Persia itself, wherever the market is 
the highest ; they go even up to Bussorah and 
Mohamrah, and from thence I have no doubt 
some find their way into Turkish harems. 
34, In point of fact, I suppose, at Muscat there 
is a recognised slave market ?—Yes. 
35. I need hardly ask you whether the system 
of obtaining slaves and exporting them involves 
great hardships and misery ?—In answer to that 
question, I cannot do better than read the begin 
ning of our Report. “ The slaves required, as 
well for the legal as for the illegal traffic, are 
obtained from the interior of Africa. Formerly 
they could be procured from the countries border 
ing on the coast, but constant slave raids have so 
depojmlated those districts, that the slave dealers 
are now forced to go far inland for their supplies. 
Year by year further tracts of country are de 
populated and laid waste, an l at the present time 
it is chiefly from the neighbourhood of Lake 
Nyassa and beyond it that slaves are obtained. 
The persons by whom this traffic is carried on 
are, for the most part, Arabs, subjects of the Sultan 
of Zanzibar. These slave dealers start for the 
interior well armed, and provided with articles 
for the barter of slaves, such as beads and cotton 
cloth. On arriving at the scene of their opera 
tions, they incite and sometimes help the natives 
of one tribe to make war upon another. Their 
assistance almost invariably secures victory to the 
side which they support, and the captives become 
their property, either by right or by purchase, 
the price in the latter case being only a few yards 
of cotton cloth. In the course of these operations 
thousands are killed, or die subsequently of their 
wounds or of starvation ; villages are burnt, and 
the women and children carried away as slaves. 
The complete depopulation of the country be 
tween the coast and the present field of the slave 
dealers’ operations attest the fearful character of 
these raids. Having, by these and other means, 
obtained a sufficient number of slaves to allow 
for the heavy losses on the road, the slave dealers 
start with them for the coast. The horrors attend 
ing this long journey have been fully described 
by Dr. Livingstone and others. The slaves are 
inarched in gangs, the males with their necks 
yoked in heavy forked sticks, which at night are 
fastened to the ground, or lashed together so as 
to make escape impossible. The women and 
children are bound with thongs. Any attempt 
at escape, or to untie their bonds, or any waver 
ing or lagging on the journey, has but one 
punishment, immediate death. The sick are left 
behind, and the route of a slave caravan can be 
tracked by the dying and the dead. The Arabs 
only value these poor creatures at the price which 
they will fetch in the market, and if they are not 
likely to pay the cost of their conveyance, they 
are got rid of. The result is that a large number 
of the slaves die or are murdered on the journey, 
and the survivors arrive at their destination in a 
state of the greatest misery and emaciation.” 
36. Mr. Kinnaird.'] You do not believe that 
there is the slightest exaggeration in that Report? 
—No ; but of course evidence upon the state 
of things in the locality would be better given by 
peojile acquainted with the country. 
37. Chairman.^} What revenue does the Sultan 
of Zanzibar derive from the tax upon slaves ?—We 
A 2 have 
Hon. 
C. Vivian, 
10 J uly 
1871.