66
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE
Rct.
H. Waller.
24 July
1871-&36.
That was not for export?—Not for export
at that time, but ii the opportunity offered they
would have exported those slaves.
937. If they could have got for them such a
price as would have compensated them for the
loss of their labour on their estates ?—Yes.
938. Our attention is rather directed to that
portion of the trade which you have described as
being carried on by the Northern Arabs ?—If
you will allow me I should very much like to
avail myself of the opportunity of describing
the cruelties I have seen connected with the
collecting of the slaves. I think I am not
asking too much to be allowed to state this,
because I know that many of the slaves taken
from the part of the country we were in find
their way to Mozambique, and that many of them
find their way to Zanzibar. Dr. Livingstone
recognised slaves at Zanzibar that had been
brought from that part of the country, and I
have recognised at Mozambique some who had
recently been taken from the highlands, and
indeed the slaves themselves told us where they
had seen us, so that we could at once identify
them as having been drawn from the country we
had been in. I think that attention should be
prominently called to the condition of those unfortunate
people in their transit from the interior,
because, though I can quite see that one’s mouth
is rather closed as to the status of a slave when
he gets to an Arab master, that has nothing to do
with the sufferings connected with his capture.
It is true that a slave is well treated by his Arab
master ; as has been well observed, a man will
not illtreat his slave so as to hurt him, any more
than he w ill his horse, but life is so cheap in the
interior of the country that this rule does not
hold good at all, as far as regards what takes
place before the slave is finally sold. When I
first went there in 1861 (and the state of things
was even worse when I left in 1864), the ordinary
price of a slave was two yards of calico ;
that is to say, for a boy 10 years of age : a
woman would fetch something more if she was
likely to be sold to the Kaffirs, or if she was
likely to go on to one of the Portuguese farms,
or to go to any of the Portuguese in Mozambique
; she might have fetched eight yards of
calico ; but the price varied very much. The
process of catching the slaves is this : the slave
dealer goes into the country with so many muskets,
and so many pieces of calico, and he finds out
the most powerful chief, and he gives him spirits
and keeps him in a state of semi-drunkenness the
whole time, and tells him he must have more
slaves ; he gives him muskets and powder on
account, and the man immediately finds out an
opportunity to settle some old outstanding quarrel
with some other chief, and therefore a war
breaks out. As soon as war breaks out, favourable
conditions are created for the carrying on
of the slave trade, because famine is sure to follow
in a country where the people are dependent
on one w^et season for tilling the ground, for it is
only during the wet season that corn can be sown.
Then a chief without food and without the means
of buying food, will sell off his people very
cheaply indeed. Captures are made in war.
Kidnapping is prevalent all over the country ;
which leads again to all sorts of petty disputes and
retaliation, and the more disturbed the country
is, the cheaper slaves become ; so cheap do they
at last become, that I have known children
of tiie age of from eight to 10 years bought for j
less corn than would go into one of our hats, i
and you may easily imagine where they are i
bought so cheaply, and where they fetch so large ,
a price on the coast, it pays the slave dealer very ■
well to collect as many as he can, knowing that ,
he must lose a certain proportion on the way, but ;
also knowing that the remnant he saves will pay ‘
him a very large profit. It is like sending up for
a large block of ice to London in the hot weather ; :
you know that a certain amount will melt away
before it reaches you in the country as it travels
down; but that which remains will be quite suffi' |
cient for your wants.
939. Chairman?^ Can you give us any idea
of the comparative price of a slave on the coast,
and in the interior where they are bought ?—I '
ascertained the price of slaves at Mozambique,
and I found they were worth there about eight
dollars, the same slaves having been bought in i
the interior for a few yards of calico. I
940. Sir R. Ansirutker?^ What is the propor- ;
tion of waste of life m the transit ? —It is very ,
difficult to say what is the waste of life in the
transit without having travelled with a slave
caravan the whole way. Sickness may break
out; they may cross a part of the country where
there is verj little food, and then many die of
famine. Then, again, if there is anything like
insubordination in the slave gang, the axe and
knife are used very freely indeed, and an indis- i
criminate slaughter takes place amongst all those i
who are strong enough to be at all obstreperous, i
We liberated a gang of 84 slaves one morning, :
and within a few miles of the place where we ;
liberated them we were shown places in the bush ;
where slaves had been killed only that morning ; j
one poor woman had a child on her back which |
she had recently given birth to, and which she |
was too weak to carry further, and the slave j
dealer took it by the heels and dashed its brains !
against a tree ; another woman was ill herselfj I
and could not keep in the line, and the slave
dealer dashed her brains out with the axe, and
she was cut out of the slave thong. They are |
all united in a long string, the men being yoked I
in heavy forked sticks, which are kept on theit ¡
necks from the time they are captured till the
time they are delivered to the slave shipper, sometimes
for six weeks and sometimes even three
months at a time.
941. Chairman.'] What is the time generally
occupied in the transit to the coast ?—It varies ;
the slave gang is made up as the dealers travel
about ; they do not collect all the slaves at one
place and go straight to the coast, the slaves are
marched to and fro in the country, to a chief here ;
and to another there, wherever the dealers hear
that slaves are to be sold, and then they are all '
eventually taken to the coast. The travelling is
very slow ; I should say it is no uncommon thing
for a slave gang to be some three months from
the time it is first formed to the time it reaches the
coast. The loss of life is very terrible indeed,
owing to the hardships of the transit, and owing
to the brutality of the drivers.
942. Dr. Livingstone, in one of his letters, ;
estimates that about one-fifth reach the coast ’■> !
do you think that that would be a fair average ^ ¡
I should say that one-fifth do reach the coast, |
perhaps more ; but I would also state this, that |
the Doctor believes that for every slave that
comes to the coast perhaps 10 lives are lost in th^
interior.
