IV 
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE 
Your Committee had before them extracts from Despatches of Dr. Livingstone, 
addressed to the Earl of Clarendon, when Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, and his testimony as to the methods resorted to by the slave 
hunters, and the cruelties and horrors of the trade is fully supported by the evidence 
of witnesses who had travelled in the interior. This evidence is well summed up 
in the Report of the Committee on the East African Slave Trade addressed to 
the Earl of Clarendon, a quotation from which is as follows : 
^ The persons by whom this traffic is carried on are for the most part Arabs, 
subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar. 1 hese 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 operations they incite and some- 
“ times 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 between 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 attending this long journey have been fully described by 
Dr. Livingstone and others. The slaves are marched in gangs, the males with 
theii 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 
child 1 en are bound with thongs. Any attempt at escape or to untie their bonds, 
“ or any wavering or lagging on the journey, has but one punishment—immediate 
death. The sick arc 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 
pi ice 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.” 
From^ Kilwa the main body of the slaves are shipped to Zanzibar, but some 
are carried direct from Kilwua to the northern ports. 
At Zanzibar the slaves are sold either in open market or direct to the dealer, 
and they aie then shipped in Arab dhows for Arabia and Persia; the numbers of 
each cargo vary from one or two slaves to between three and four hundred. 
The whole slave trade by sea, whether for the supply of the Sultan’s African 
dominions or the markets in Arabia and Persia, is carried on by Arabs from 
Muscat and other ports on the Arabian coast. They are not subjects of Zanzibar 
but chiefly belong to tribes of roving and predatory habits. 
The sea passage exposes the slave to much suffering; and, in addition to the 
danger from overcrowding and insufficient food and water, the loss of life connected 
with the attempt to escape Her Majesty’s cruisers is very considerable, it beino* 
the practice to use any means to get rid of the slaves in order to escape com 
demnalion, should the dhow be captured. Between Kilwa and Zanzibar a dhow 
lately lost a third of the slaves ; there were 90 thrown overboard, dead or dyino- 
many of them in a terribly emaciated state. 
J he ready market found for the slave in Arabia and Persia, and the large 
profit upon the sale, are quite sufficient inducements for the continuance of the 
traffic. 
It seems impossible to arrive at an exact conclusion as to the actual number 
of slaves who leave the African coast in one year, but from the returns 
laid before the Committee an estimate may be formed. At the port of Kilwa is 
the Custom-house of the Sultan of Zanzibar, through which pass all slaves that 
are not smuggled, and there a tax is levied on all that pass the Custom 
house.