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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68 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Rev. H. Waller. 24 July 1871. should he placed at different parts of the coast to watch the slave trade, and to aid the fleet, as they certainly would be able to do in a most valuable way. General Rigby thinks that it would be difficult to get men to undertake that office, on account of the unhealthiness of the coast, but I think that difficulty might be removed in a measure, by having what I have heard called a Floating-consul that is a consul who should have a yacht at his command, and who should ply between, say, Zanzibar and Madagascar ; he might spend some part of his time at Kilwa, and some part of his time in Mozambique harbour ; he might cross to Johanna, where a large slave trade is going on, and he might cruise along the coast of Madagascar if need be, though, perhaps that would be too large a field. At all events, I think the danger to a man’s life would be obviated by his being able to move about. To put a man in a very unhealthy place is not only likely to kill him in a short time, but it makes him non-efficient very quickly indeed. The result of two or three attacks of fever is very serious ; if the man is not moved away, he, in some cases, becomes morbid in his ideas, and, in other cases, he becomes exceedingly nervous. In some cases I have known men become really demented as long as they have been within the reach of the malaria that has made them ill. It is necessary, in that country, to be moving about. You may undergo any hardships as long as you move about, and are in active employ ment; but once be stationary in an unhealthy place (and there is no place so unhealtliy as a small Arab town), and your life is very much hazarded. I would add thaf I think there are also other advantages in such a plan. I think the slave dealers would then never know where to expect this officer ; he would be master of his own actions and movements much better than he would if he had to be dependent on calling upon a man-of-war to take him from one place to another. I do not think the expense of such a sei vice would be very great; it would be a popular service, and many men would be found who would enter heart and soul into it. 959. Do not you think the same service could be performed by one of the fleet cruising about in the same way from poVt to port?—I think not so well, because I attach importance to the vice- consul being enabled to reside on shoie for a short time, by which means he would be able to obtain information which he otherwise could not obtain. The floating-consul might go to any of those ports, and remain a short time at them ; and then, without the necessity of asking any one’s leave, he might weigh anchor the next morning, and communicate with any of the fleet. 960. Have you any other suggestion to make with a view to putting a stop to this slave trade ? — I will simply add this ; I have seen a good deal of the Arabs in the Comoro Islands, and other places, and I should certainly advise that we should deal with them with a strong hand in pre ference to any dallying wdth them ; I would put the utmost pressure upon the Sultan of Zanzibar at once ; I should show him that though we might be taking away from him shillings by stopping his slave trade, yet that the vast increase in the legitimate trade that there must be in the course of a few years would be putting back pounds into his pocket. He is now a beggar set upon horseback ; he is a man of enormous income ; and from what General Rigby has said, he is a man with whom I think strong action would have more effect than any paper w'arfare in the way of treaties, and so forth. 961. You have probably seen a great deal to enable you to form an opinion as to what would be the increase of commercial intercourse if the slave trade w ere abolished ?—I know most of the merchants connected with the trade on the East Coast, and I get letters constantly from Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar ; I also know Dr. Steere, who has resided there some time, and Mr. Alington who was there ; I knew Mr. Thornton who was with Baron Von Der Decken ; and I have indirectly had very many opportunities of knowing how the trade of Zanzibar is increasing daily. 962. Do you think that the merchants resident there are anxious to have the slave trade put a stop to?—I think they are certainly. When the northern Arabs come down with the monsoon to carry away the slaves to Arabia and the Persian Gulf, there is no security for the life of Europeans in Zanzibar, and if a better state of things were established, if safety could bo ensured, I am sure they would all be very glad. I cannot conceive that Europeans could have twm opinions about it. 963. They are not themselves at all connected w ith the slave trade, are they ?—Kot at present. I cannot say that such was the case a few years ago. I know that a great commotion existed at Zanzibar, and also in the Comoro Islands, from the fact that Englishmen were very large em ployers of slave labour, but that has been put a stop to by the Foreign Office. 964. \ ou think now there is a very general feeling among the merchants there that their interests .would be promoted by the suppression of the slave trade ?—I am sorry I cannot back my opinion by evidence upon that point, but there are gentlemen in this country (one gentle man especially whose house is connected with Zanzibar, a member of the firm of Wiseman and ' Company, one of the leading merchants there) who, I am sure, could offer you better information on the subject than I can. 965. Mr. Crum-EwingCaptain Fraser had a large number of slaves, had he not?—Yes; the fact of Captain Fraser employing slaves led to everlasting murmuring on the part of the natives. One morning they wmuld see us burning the dhows which were engaged in the slave trade, and the next morning they would see an English man working factories and plantations with those slaves safely landed ; it was a question which puzzled far more acute people than they were. The same thing existed at the Comoro Islands ; it was a mere sham and delusion; the poor slaves ! were hired in gangs from their Arab master; tliR j Arab master was called in by the English em ployer, who, merely as a matter of form, said Now mind all these people are to be free • labourers on my plantation. I will hand over their wages to you. But, of course, they were not handed over. It was encouraging the slave trade. | 966. Sir R. A7istriither.~\ As far as the slaves were concerned, they were as much slaves after the transaction as before ? Yes. 967. Mr. Crum- Ewing.After they were manumitted, did not they remain with Colonel Fraser of their own accord?—I am not sure about that; I know at the time it was a oreat scandal. ^ 968. Sit

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