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APPENDIX  TO  REPORT  FROM  SELECT  COMMITTEE

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Appendix,  No.  7.  The  returns  of  the  Zanzibar  custom  house  show  the  import  of  slaves  during  the  year
1859  to  have  amounted  to  19,000.  The  duty  levied  is  now  two  dollars  per  head  ;  so  that
the  loss  the  abolition  of  the  traffic  would  cause  to  the  revenue  of  (he  Sultan  would  amount
to  about  38,000  crowns,  or  8,5007.  sterling  per  annum.

(signed')
British  Consulate,  Zanzibar,
5  October  1860.

C.  P.  Rigfjy,  Lieut.  Colonel,
Her  Majesty’s  Consul,  Zanzibar.

Resolution  by  the  Honourable  Board,  dated  the  28th  March  1861.
Resolved,
Brigadier  Coghlan  sent  a  copy  of  this  interesting  report  to  Her  Majesty’s  Secretary
of  State  for  India  before  he  sent  the  original  to  tliis  Government.  The  subjects  to  which
Brigadier  Coghlan  has  drawn  attention  involve  questions  which  are  for  the  decision  of
Her  Majesty’s  Government,  and  the  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  feels  confident
that  the  complete  and  lucid  statement  submitted  by  that  officer  will  obtain  an  earnest  consideration. ­
  It  is  merely  as  a  matt-r  of  form  that  this  Government  records  any  observations
on  this  report.
2.  The  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  is  certain  that  the  details  furnished  by
Brigadier  Coghlan,  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  slave  trade  is  carried  on,  on  the  east  coast
of  Africa,  will  convince  the  British  Government,  which  has  ever  been  the  chief  instrument
by  which  Providence  has  curbed  this  inhuman  traffic,  that  its  work  is  net  yet  completed,
and  that  a  great  evil  has  still  to  be  encountered  and  subdued.
3.  Brigadier  Coghlan  places  one  fact  prominently  before  the  British  Government,  that
however  much  the  ruler  of  Zanzibar  may  be  disposed  to  fall  in  with  the  views  of  modern
civilization  on  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade,  lie  is  almost  entirely  unable  to  resist  the
influences  around  him.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  a  chief  with  a  disputed  title,  who  must
therefore  endeavour  to  conciliate  his  subjects,  sternly  to  oppose  a  system  from  wliich  he  derives
a  considerable  portion  of  bis  revenue,  when  every  man  around  him  is  a  slave  crimp  or  a  slave
broker.  Advice  and  remonstrance  are  excellent  instruments  for  good,  in  proper  times  and
places,  but  they  are  of  singular  feebleness,  when  addressed  to  one  in  the  helpless  position  of
the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar.  Ihe  British  Government  must  be  prepared  to  support  the  Sultan  by
its  ships  and  by  iis  money,  the  strengthening  of  the  Cape  fleet,  and  the  frequent  extension  of
its  surveillance  to  Zanzibar  and  the  adjacent  African  coast,  the  stationing  of  gun-bcats  at
Zanzibar,  and  the  grant  of  com;  ensation  to  the  Sultan  for  the  revenue  he  will  sacrifice,  are
measures  which  ¡t  would  be  presumptuous  in  this  Government  to  advocate.  The  Honourable ­
  the  Governor  in  Council,  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt  that  if  the  horrors  described  by
an  officer  so  cautious  as  Brigaoier  Couhlan,  were  made  known  to  the  British  nation,  not  a
voice  w  ould  be  raised  against  so  >mall  an  acknowledgment  to  Zanzibar  as  8,5001,  per
annum,  for  the  attainment  of  so  noble  an  object  as  the  extinction  of  the  East  African  slave
trade.

5.  The  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council,  fully  concurs  with  Brigadier  Ccghlan  as  to
the  propriety  of  obtaining  a  revision  of  the  treaty,  by  which  all  export  and  import  of  slaves
within  the  Zanzibar  dominions  should  be  prohibited.  The  permission  vvhicli  now  exists  for
the  transport  of  slaves  from  one  portion  of  Her  Majesty’s  territories  to  another,  in  a  great
measure  deprives  the  restrictions  on  the  trade  of  all  their  value.
6.  TV  itil  respect  fo  the  Pe  rsian  Gulf,  the  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  believes
that  the  defect  in  the  action  of  the  squadron  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  has
been  that  operations  have  been  carrieci  on  loo  much  within  the  Gulf,  instead  of  at  the  month,
and  that  the  proper  lime  for  operations  has  not  been  chosen  with  sufficient  care.  The
squadron  is  small,  and  many  duties  are  imposed  on  it,  and  the  Honourable  the  Governor  in
Council  tears  that  the  Resident  detaches  vessels  fium  it  on  political  raii-sions,  at  the  time
when  every  vessel  that  can  be  spared  should  be  on  the  h  ok  out  for  slavers  returning
from  A  (rica  at  the  mouth  of  the  Gulf.  The  Honourab  e  the  Governor  in  Council  will  not,
however,  at  present  i-sue  orders  on  this  subject,  as  from  a  r  ceni  teleeram,  it  would  appear
that  Her  Majesty’s  Goveinment  has  determ  ned  to  relieve  the  Inaian  navy  from  the  duty
of  suppressing  the  slave  trade.  His  Excellency  in  Council  has  no  doubt  that  the  evil,
though  now  ii  appears  so  formidable,  would  in  a  very  few  years  succumb  to  the  vigorous
exertions  of  an  oigauisation  directed  expressly  against  it,  under  the  guidance  of  a  carefully
selected  officer.
7.  The  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  concurs  with  Brigadier  Coghlan  m  considering ­
  (hat  if  the  prohiintion  of  transport  of  slaves  from  one  ponionef  the  Zanzibar  dominions
to  another  is  insisted  on,  three  years’  warning  should  be  given  before  the  prohibition  is
enforced.
28  March  1861.  (signed)  G.  Clerk.
H.  W.  Reeves.
W.  P.  Frere.