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  dyinomany
  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  Customhouse. ­