74 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 
Rev. 
E. Steere, 
LL.D. 
25 July 
1871. 
Arabs who come in the monsoon time come to 
Zanzibar^ and there stop. 
1041. They do not negotiate with the dealers 
on the mainland?—Not with the people on the 
mainland ; they kidnap slaves in Zanzibar, and 
sometimes take them off the plantations; they 
procure them by any means they can, in Zanzibar 
and immediately on the coast. 
1042. What was your experience as to the 
healthiness of Zanzibar ?—I was quite as well 
myself in Zanzibar as I should have been in 
England. 
1043. You were in the town ?—Yes. 
1044. Can you speak to the healthiness of the 
country ?—I have no reason to think that the 
climate of the country is worse ; we all thought 
that the mainland opposite, particularly at Dar 
Seelam, was likely to be more healthy than 
Zanzibar itself. I have been at Dar Seelam, 
which is very finely situated ; it has an excellent 
harbour, and there are some very fine buildings ; 
but T am told that it is now to be abandoned. 
It was always thought that Seyyid Majid intended 
it as a place of security against his brother, 
the Imaum of Muscat, the town not being so 
accessible from the sea as Zanzibar is. 
1045. What proportion of the slaves brought 
to Zanzibar are children ?—Among the slaves I 
have seen landed from the dhows at Zanzibar 
there has not been a large proportion of children : 
I should think, taking one with another, you 
would get the ordinary proportion of children to 
grown people. 
1046. What is the ordinary proportion ?—A 
sixth, I would say, were children ; but almost 
all the slaves are young people. 
1047. I mean between the ages of six and ten ? 
—About a sixth of the slaves I have seen landed 
in Zanzibar would be under 10, but of the cargoes 
I have seen taken from vessels going to Arabia, 
the proportion of children has been very much 
larger ; in some cases they seemed to be almost 
all children. 
1048. Did you see the boats in Zanzibar taking 
slaves on board for export ?—I used to see the 
dhows coming from Kilwa with slaves ; they used 
to go round our house close to our windows, 
the deck of the dhow woud be entirely covered 
with slaves squatting side by side, so closely 
packed that it was impossible for them to move ; 
there would be sometimes 200 to 300 in a large 
open boat. 
1049. Would that be about the ordinary 
number carried in a dhow ?—I think they always 
aim at getting as many as 200 into the dhow. 
1050. Of course then there would be con 
siderable mortality before they reached Arabia? 
—No doubt the mortality must be enormous. 
1051. Did you see those dhows lying in wait 
in the harbour for a convenient opportunity of 
escaping our cruisers ?—It was all done perfectly 
openly ; the trade was legitimate to Mombaza 
and Lamoo, and there was not the slightest 
attempt at interfering with it. 
1052. Have you an}; reason to suppose that 
any considerable proportion of those slaves that 
are taken to Lamoo are taken to remain there ? 
—No, I should think a very small proportion in 
deed go to Lamoo to remain there. 
1053. It is a mere blind?—It is a mere 
blind. 
1054. As to nine-tenths would you say?—As 
to nine-tenths I should think. There is besides 
this, a slave trade which is illegitimate in the eyes 
of the Arabs at Zanzibar ; that is conducted 
chiefly by the northern Arabs that come from 
the Persian Gulf, who kidnap and steal their 
slaves, and who avoid paying the customs duties 
on them. The ordinary slave carriers are from 
Sur near Ras al Hadd ; the northern Arabs or 
Shemali are Wahabees from Ras al Kheymah, 
near Cape Mussandum. 
1055. Hotv do they get off from Zanzibar? — 
They generally sail in the night; they have 
houses in the town ; it is notorious in what parts 
of the town they make their stay while they are 
collecting their slaves, and in the back parts of 
those premises they gather the slaves ; then when 
they have a good opportunity they slip them on 
board the dhows secretly at night and the dhow 
goes out to sea. 
1056. Are there a large number of dhows en 
gaged in that particular trade ? — There have 
been generally a large number of them every 
season. 
1057. Have ymu any idea of the number of 
dhows engaged in that trade in the course of a 
year ?—There is so much secrecy about it that I 
do not think anybody can tell accurately ; there 
is a certain build of dhow one knows, and one 
used to see eight or ten of them in the harbour at 
a time, I do not know how many of them there 
would be in the course of a year. 
1058. You saw many dhows in the harbour at 
a time, which in the night would load their slaves 
and go away ?—Dhows which everybody knew 
were there for piratical purposes if the opportu 
nity offered. 
1059. Would they carry off a great number of 
slaves?—They would carry as many as they 
could on board ; there was one taken by the 
“ Wasp ” that had, I think, 380 on board. 
1060. Do you look forward to any considera 
ble increase of commercial intercourse at Zanzi 
bar, supposing the slave trade were put down ?— 
Yes, I think commerce will go on increasing, and 
I think commerce tends to suppress the slave 
trade ; the legitimate commerce of Zanzibar is so 
large that the slave trade is being rather squeezed 
out by it. 
1061. Do you think that the export of slaves 
is now decreasing rather than increasing ?—■ 
Ifes. 
1062. For how long has that been the case?— 
It has been chiefly, I suppose, since cloves began 
to be planted in Zanzibar. 
1063. That has given rise to a great trade ?— 
To a very great trade. 
1064. Does not that render it their interest 
rather to prevent the slave trade ?—The Zanzibar 
people feel, as a rule, that the slave trade is a 
disreputable occupation, and they say among 
themselves “money made by the slave trade 
never prospers. ” 
1065. They think it injurious to the interests 
of the state?—No, I do not say they think that, 
because the whole life of an Arab is bound up 
with the employment of slaves : all their domestic 
arrangements would be overthrown by the aboli 
tion of slavery. 
1066. I am speaking of the slave trade, and 
not slavery ?—T on always find that the Arabs 
are anxious to supply their friends and relations 
with the slaves they want, and they consider it a 
laudable thing to do so ; but they consider the 
slave trade generally to be disreputable. 
1067. Is there any idea growing up in Zanzi 
bar that they want the labour of the negroes 
themselves,