Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 832922498

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-79587

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Place of publication:: [London]

Publisher:: [The House of Commons]

Year of publication:: 1871

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XXIV, 242 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 113 8. Further, it is equally certain, consirlering the penalties attached by the Portuguese Appendix, No. 7. Government to any participation in the foreign slave trade, that such transactions could ! not be carried on in their African territories without the countenance of the local authori- ti( g. Their connivance is fully known to all the Arab and other traders on the coast, and I found the concurrent testimony in perfect accord with the statement of Colonel Bigby, that at the “ Portuguese settlements the slave trade is carried on in the most shameless “ manner, all the Portuguese authorities aiding and abetting it, and dividing their nefa- rious gains.’' 9. Moreover, by all accounts, the cruelties of the traffic in the hands of the Portuguese equal in atrocity those so well known to accompany it on the Western Coast, and its late increase among them is fast desiroying the last faint traces of civilisation left in their once prosperous settlements on the East Coast of Africa. Large tracts of fertile country are becoming depopulated, and the remains of the serai-barbarous tribes in the neighbourhood are being driven to a state of desperation, which threatens at no distant period to be the scourge and ruin of their degenerate and inhuman masters. 10. It will be for Her Majesty’s Ministers to decide on the pro|niety of bringing to the notice of the Portuguese Government the culpable conduct of its representatives on the East Coast i.f Africa in thus fostering the slave trade. But if, as is to be feared, no permanently favourable result is likely to follow any such intervention, owing to the weakness of the Imperial Government, and the utter disorganisation of its East African settlements, I venture to urge that no time be lost in strengihening the Cape squadron with a sufficient number of steam vessels, specially adapted for the service, to watch the Portuguese coast from Delagoa Bay to Cape Delgado. The fertile and salubrious island of Johanna, three degrees south of Delgado, witl\ its secure anchorage, and its reigning sultan decidedly favourable to our interests, would form an eligible haven for the cruisers on the north ; whilst the hitherto neglected British possession of the southern portion of Delagoa Bay might constitute a convenient station for those destined to watch the line of Portuguese coast from that point to the mouths of the Zambesi. 11. I believe the opinion is gaining ground that the notorious insalubrity of the Portu guese town of Lorenço Marques, near Delagoa Bay, is not so much owing to the climate of that portion of Africa as to its ill-chosen site. On the other hand Iniack Island, form ing the southern arm of the bay, and within British limits, is represented as being a very healthy spot, entirely beyond the poisonous miasmata of the adjacent rivers, and frequently resorted to by the natives as a sanatarium. It appears to me desirable, independently of the suggestion contained in the foregoing paragraph, that a fair trial should be made of the climate of this locality. The position is admirably adapted for trade, whilst the two navi gable rivers in its immediate neighbourhood, the Mapoota and the Manice, are said to give access to the Zula country and to the territories of the Transvaal Bepublic. Should the result be favourable, Iniack Island would bid fair to become an important commercial emporium, whilst the adjoining country of Tembe (also British territory), might afford an eligible settlement whereon to locate the slaves captured by our cruisers on the coast. In short, the healthiness of the climate once proved, a British station in Delagoa Bay might occupy, on this side of Africa, a position analogous to that of Sierra Leone on the Western Coast ; and should the scheme proposed be found feasible, benevolent societies at home would not be backward to crown the humane efforts of the Government, in behalf of the liberated Africans, by corresponding endeavours to impart to them the blessings of a Christian civilisation. 12. In the event, however, of Delagoa Bay being found unadapted for the object here suggested, there are fortunately several other British settlements in these seas where any number of liberated slaves might find a ready asylum, together with the means of obtaining their own livelihood, as well as of being at the same time within the reach of Christian instruction, ^atal, 25Ö miles to the south, is in urgent want of labourers. The Seychelles, with their rich soil, are comparatively waste from the same cause; and the Mauritius, where the 800 slaves lately captured by Her Majesty’s ship Brisk ” were gladly received, could find remunerative employment for some additional thousands of workmen on the prosperous sugar plantations of that island. 13. If I hesitate to apologise for the foregoing suggestions touching the disposal of slaves captured by our cruisers on the east coast of Afiica, it is owing to the conviction that they will not be regarded as superflu us, and that Her Majesty’s Government is as deeply inte rested in the after condition and welfare of such as acquire their freedom by British inter vention, as it is in rescuing them, in the first instance, from the miseries of an inhuman bondage. 14. But if the suppression of slavery in the Portuguese settlements is an object most desirable in itself, its importance is enhanc ed in view of any attempt on our part to abolish the traffic in the adjoining African territories dependent on Zanzibar. The fact of a neigh bouring Christian people, known to be extensively engaged in the trade, is at once a pre cedent and a strong ground of apology to the slave-dealing Mahomedans. No formal aixfii- ment, indeed, is based on that plea; but hints as to our consistency in so strongly uro-mo- them to forego the practice, and doubts as to the disinterestedness of our motives in the Solicitation, whilst our co-religionists are allowed to pursue the same course with compa- 0.116. P rative

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