73
ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
Arabian coast, and take the slavers as they
arrived ; then as regards liberated slaves, I think
^kat the slaves that are landed should be landed
Zanzibar rather than any other place, because,
if yon take a freed slave and put him in any
other country, you put him amongst strangers in
^ country the climate of which will probably
Hot agree with him, and where, at first, he will be
Htterly useless to those he lands amongst ; but if
you put him down at Zanzibar you put him where
ke will find a number of men of his own nation,
ivho understand him and live in the way that he
kas been used to, and yon put him in a place
ivhere he will be able to get a living.
1021. As to the disposition of the ships, you
«ay you would have them watch the Arab ports?
I think that would be the best arrangement
H'ith a view to suppressing the trade.
1022. Large vessels would do that ?—Possibly
they would do that better than small ones.
1023. And the small vessels you spoke of
H'ould be best adapted for pursuing the dhows in
the shallows ?—Yes, on the African coast.
1024. Is there anything else which you think
Hiight be done by the Government in order to
«how their determination to put an end to the
trade ?—It would be a A ery great thing if the
treaty that Avas talked of at one time, Avere made
''vith the Sultan to prohibit the export of slaves
H'ithin the Sultan’s dominions, except Avithin a
^rroAv compass ; I think betAveen Mombas and
■klar Selam, or some such district, because the
«laA’es that go to Arabia, are almost ahvays
«kipped for Lamoo ; a great number are shipped
from Zanzibar for Lamoo, and what I understand
lo be the course is that they pay the customs duty
Hpon the slaA es to go to Lamoo, and they get
Passes, AA liich they shoAv till they reach the latitude
of Lamoo, and then they make the best of
their Avay to Arabia.
1025. Under the treaty is there a poAver of
Exporting slaves from Zanzibar to Lamoo?—Yes,
^t Avas so in my time ; it Avas, generally speaking,
l^^e rule that no slave Avent from anyAvhere but
^anzibar, and as a rule they had been brought
troin Kihva to Zanzibar; some going from Kihva
Madagascar, and to the Comoro Islands.
1026. What is the change now ?—At present
fvilAva is not the great port, because the country
kas been ravaged behind it by the Maviti ; they
^Ome more from Bagamoyo opposite Zanzibar.
1027. Sir J. flay.] Do I rightly understand
J'ou to say that the slaves from Zanzibar bound
Arabia are cleared at the Zanzibar customkouse
as being bound for Lamoo ?—Yes
1028. And Avith that false destination they
^' ade the cruisers as far north as Lamoo, and
A go to the open sea and steer for the coast of
Arabia ?—Yes.
1029. Chairman.^ Do you think the appoint-^l^Ht
of vice-consuls at one or tAVO of those ports
^long the coast Avould tend to facilitate the supp’ession
of the trade ?—I think it Avould be usej
I do not think it is at all a matter of first
kecessity.
1030. Do yon not think that the appointment
^ those vice-consuls Avould be very useful as a
^eans of obtaining influence along the coast and
® H means of furnishing information to the naval
thcers ?—The difficulty Avould be as to Avho
^^onld be the vice-consuls. Persons uoaa'^ 1ÍA ing in
lose toAvns Avould be more likely to mislead than
help,
ft)3l. If we could get honest and efficient
0.116.
vice-consuls, do you think their agency Avould
be very important ?—It would be very valuable.
1032. Is there any dijfficulty Avith respect to
obtaining proper interpreters upon whom naval
officers can depend ?—The greatest possible difficulty.
The interpreters I knew when I Avas in
Zanzibar Avere all of them men Avho would not
hesitate to take a bribe from the commander of a
slave dhoAv and mislead the cruisers. It was
universally said that one man. Juma, Avho is now
dead, and Avho was one of the chief interpreters,
was in the habit of communicating Avith slave
dhoAvs, and arranging that a certain number
should be taken and that the rest should escape.
1033. The naval officers are very much dependent
on the interpreters ?—Entirely, because
very feAv of them understand Arabic, and you
may say none of them understand the Suaheli
language, the language of the coast.
1034. Does any mode of supplying that want
occur to you ?—I have published a Suaheli vocabulary
by Avhich, perhaps, officers might acquire
some knowledge of that dialect.
1035. You have spoken of the depopulation as
being caused by Avar, which has not been originated
for the sake of obtaining slaves ; have you
any reason to doubt the evidence Ave have had as
to Avars being proAoked by the slave dealers for
the purpose of getting those slaves ?— I do not
know Avhat the evidence is, but I never heard of
such a Avar.
1036. You have not heard'of arms being supplied
to some of the tribes, in order to give them
success in Avar for that purpose ?—This kind of
thing Avill happen, as happened in the Nyamwezi
country ; there was a dispute there as to the
succession, and the Arabs sided Avith one party ;
there Avas then a great desolation of country, but
the number of slaves procured by that means
Avas very small ; as to supplying muskets, the sale
of arms is part of the regular trade of a caravan.
1037. You do not agree AAÚth those accounts
Avhich Ave have heard, that the course to Avhich I
haA'e referred is the ordinary course by Avhich
slaves are obtained ?—No, I doubt it very much;
when first I Avent up the Zambezi, I was surprised
to find that the direction of the slave trade
was into the interior, and not doAvn to the coast,
and then, again, I was surprised to find that the
slaves found (by Dr. Livingstone) in the hands
of the traders during a desolating Avar did not
belong to the conquered tribe, but to the victorious
one ; they had been in many instances sold
by their OAvn relations.
1038. That Avould not account for the large
number of slaves brought to the coast?—There
are an enormous number of slaves in the interior
; the trade has been going on for a thousand
years.
1039. If 20,000 arrive at the coast, something
like 100,000 must have been obtained, because
it is estimated that about a fifth reach the coast ?
—There must be a A ery large number collected.
The Turkish slave dealers Sir Samuel Baker
met Avith are talked of in Zanzibar as men who
do that, Avho stir up Avars for the sake of earrying
off slaves Avithont buying them, and the Zanzibar
men express their abhorrence of such proceedings.
^ 1040. I am not referring so much to the Zanzibar
men as to the northern Arabs, Avho come
doAvn Avith the monsoon for slaves?—All the
tracle goes through Zanzibar hands ; the northern
K Arabs
Rev.
E. Steere,
LLD.
25 July
1871.
