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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46 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Maj. Gen. he thought if his brother rebelled he would want C. P. Righy. their assistance, and he paid them every year 40,000 dollars as bribes in point of fact. The 20 July present Sultan, having a friendly brother at 1871. Muscat, will be under no obligation of that sort. 586. As I understand, the only means which you suggest, with a view of suppressing the slave trade on the east coast of Africa, are, increased activity on the port of our squadron, and re quiring the Sultan to enter into a new treaty with us so as to put a stop to the internal slave trade?—Yes ; the chief point with regard to the squadron is to have an experienced naval officer in a permanent appointment there, who should have a command or supervision over the whole east coast, embracing the Mozambique and Ma dagascar coast, where there is a very large and increasing slave trade going on now. He should not be always required to reside at any one place, but to go about in the cruisers. In a short time he would have a thorough knowledge of where the slave trade was carried on in all its branches, and as each new cruiser came on to the ground, the commander would not be perfectly in the dark as he has been hitherto, sometimes taking vessels that are not slavers. All that would be avoided, and the mere fact of having an officer there acquainted with the coast and able to give instructions to the officers coming out, would cer tainly save the expense of two vessels there. 587. Do you know anything of the expense which is now incurred in the support of liberated slaves ?—I have no recent knowledge upon that point. When I was at Zanzibar I emancipated about 6,000 slaves who had been held in slavery by British Indian subjects. I never had the slightest trouble in providing for them, and they never cost the Government a shilling. 588. Did you obtain labour for them, or did they find it for themselves?—They found it for themselves. There was always a great demand for labour, not only in the plantations, but in the service of American and German and French houses. There is a great trade in cowries, which employs a great many people ; then labourers are required in sifting and washing the gum copal, and in husking the cocoa-nuts ; it constantly oc curred that I discovered slaves in the employ ment of those foreign merchants whose masters were British subjects. I sent for them and had them emancipated by the Arab judge, and they took their certificates of emancipation and went back to their work, the only difference being that instead of handing over all the pay to their masters, they kept the pay themselves. 589. Do you attach importance to having con suls or vice consuls at other ports on the coast besides Zanzibar itself?—I do not think it would be possible. I know Mr. Churchill has recom mended that, but I do not think you would get a respectable class of men to undertake the office ; and if you could get them I do not think, on the average the men would live three months, the climate is so very unhealthy. I never knew a white man go there yet without getting one of the deadly fevers. I was on the coast myself, and I very nearly died. I caught a fever that lasted for eight months. 590. Is Zanzibar itself unhealthy ?—The town is not, but it is almost certain death for any white man to sleep in the plantation. Some years ago the commodore went with several officers and a boat’s crew to one of the Sultan’s country houses in the interior of the island, a distance of about ] 5 miles ; they only slept one night in the interior, and a few days afterwards the only one of the whole party alive was one who had slept in the boat, the vegetation is so dense and rank. 591. Do the natives suffer from the climate ?— Not in the same degree, the Arabs do, very much ; I think very few Arabs of pure race reach manhood. 592. Have you kept up your acquaintance with what has been going on in Zanzibar since 1861, when you left?—Yes; I have been in constant correspondence wilh people out there, Mr. Churchill and Dr. Kirk, and natives. I happen to have received last Monday some very interest ing letters, one of which was from the customs master complaining bitterly of the want of postal communication. 593. Was your attention directed to that sub ject while you were there ?—It was a constant subject of correspondence with me the whole time I was there. 594. Was there not at one time a suggestion made that tenders should be advertised for for a subsidised line of steamers ?—I made a report on the matter to the Government of Bombay. I had constantly represented the desirability of having a subsidised line, and when I came home on leave I had an interview with Sir Charles Wood, who was then the Minister for India, but nothing was done. When I went back to India I found that the subject had been noticed by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce in consequence of a good deal of trade which used to find its way to Bombay being intercepted by foreign merchants, and taken to Zanzibar ; for instance, Germans and Americans now send their ships to Muscat and to Bussorah for gums and hides, and to the coast of Mekrau for wool, tliereby cutting off very nearly all the w ool trade and the gum and hide trade from Kurrachee and Bombay ; that is all brought to Zanzibar, and sent away in Ger man and American ships. 595. Lord jP. Cavendish.'] Bound the Cape ?—- Yes, since the opening of the Suez Canal, another change has taken place, and I think a good deal of trade is coming back to this country. 596. Chairman.] Is that diversion of trade to which you have referred, attributable in any way to the want of postal communication ?—I consider it entirely due to that; perhaps I may be allowed to read a few remarks from the report which I made to the Government at the time, which ex press my views at the present moment. The Government of Bombay had been in communi cation with the Postmaster General upon this subject, and happening to be at Bombay at the time on my way to England, they referred the matter to me ; and this is my memorandum, dated the 3rd March 1867 : “During my residence at Zanzibar, I had many occasions of observing hoW very desirable a regular postal communication would be between that port and Bombay; and on my return to England, I brought this subject to the consideration of Sir Charles Wood, then Secretary of State for India, pointing out hoW the rapidly increasing commerce of Zanzibar was being monopolised by foreigners, and the trade ot Aden, Muscat, Bussorah, and the coast of Mekran being gradually diverted from Kurrachee and Bombay into foreign bottoms, owing to the German and American merchants at Zanzibar intercepting it, and carrying the coffee, gums, hides, &c., from Aden and Mocha ; the dates, hides, &c., from Muscat, and the wool from Mekran,

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