86 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 
Mr. E. 
Hutchimon, 
25 July 
1871. 
Mr. Edward Hutchinson, called in ; and Examined. 
1336. Chairman.'] You aie one of the Secre 
taries of the Church Missionary Society?—I 
am, 
1337. Has your society been instituting in 
quiries with respect to the suitability of Sey 
chelles as a place to which to send liberated 
slaves ?—I may say shortly that the whole of this 
matter has been before our committee for the last 
four years ; we have been investigating it 
thoroughly for that time, and we arrived at this 
conclusion, that the Seychelles was the most suit 
able place at which a depot for liberated slaves 
could be established ; and, in anticipation of the 
Government agreeing with our view, we sent a 
missionary there with instructions to purchase a 
property there, and commence a training institu 
tion ; we did not do that till we had ascertained 
from the fullest evidence we could collect upon 
the subject, that Seychelles was the best place 
for the purpose. We sent a gentleman from the 
Mauritius to the Seychelles who sent us a report, 
an epitome of which I have here, and he also 
procured for us a report by Mr. Swinburne 
Ward, the Government Commissioner at the 
Seychelles, speaking in the most favourable 
terms of the Seychelles as being suitable for a 
depot for liberated slaves. 
1338. Would your society be prepared to 
send agents to the Seychelles for the instruction 
and civilisation of liberated slaves who might be 
sent there?—We have an agent there now, and 
he was quite ready to set to work, but a stop was 
put to the whole matter by the Government 
refusing to send any more slaves to the Seychelles. 
If any number of liberated slaves had been sent 
to the Seychelles we were prepared to have ap 
plied for a sufficient number of lads and children 
to train and teach, with the hope, at some future 
.time, of their returning to Africa. And I say 
this because the Committee may perhaps not be 
aware that Dr, Livingstone, when he last went 
to Africa, took with him nine lads from our insti 
tution in Bombay ; that is the institution to 
which the Government of Bombay sent slave 
children captured in the Indian Ocean ; and from 
that institution Dr. Livingstone selected nine 
lads to accompany him in his travels into the 
interior of Africa, and who are now with him ; 
and in a Report in 1866, by Dr. Livingstone, 
which is to be found in the papers before the 
Committee, he mentions that one of those lads 
met his own uncle at the very village from which 
he had been torn as a child, and the uncle, find 
ing the value that this lad would be to him, 
having been taught agriculture and carpentry at 
Nassick, proposed that he should stay with him, 
but the lad’s answer was, “ No,” he preferred 
staying with his master. Dr. Livingstone. 
1338*. Will you hand in the epitome of the 
Reports respecting the Seychelles ?—{The Wit 
ness handed in the same, vide Appendix.) 
1339. Is there anything else which you wish 
to state to the Committee ?—I should like to say 
that we have given this subject very careful con 
sideration, and we believe that the recommen 
dations contained in the Report of the Committee 
which sat at the Foreign Office are very valuable, 
but there is one particular in which we dissent 
from them, and that is, the recommendation con 
tained in paragraph 64. We dissent entirely 
from the proposal that those children should be 
liberated at the Island of Zanzibar, and the^^ 
handed over to any master fi om whom they migy. 
take wages ; it is a proposal which we think 
entirely opposed to the whole policy that 
Government have hitherto adopted in dealiP- 
with the slave trade. , . 
1340. It was your society principally whi*i 
drew the attention of the Government to tk^' 
matter, was it not?—We have pressed this 
ter upon the Government at various times. 
years ago we went on a deputation to the Intk*' 
Office, which resulted in the appointment of fk 
Foreign Office Committee. 
1341. The Bishop of Mauritius brought fk ^ 
matter before you ?—He brought the matter 
fore us in 1867, and since that time we have bc^^ 
perpetually working to bring public opinion ^ 
bear upon it. 
1342. Mr. Kimiaird.] Is there any other pD^.^ 
besides the Seychelles which would be suita^G 
for the establishment of schools for the liberal _ 
slave children ?-—1 might say at the Maurih|\ 
itself there is a large establishment, which 
been superintended by our missionaries, 
there the Mauritius government have done ^vk 
the Government did at Sierra Leone, nain^*i 
they have given 6 d. a-head per diem for evß^' 
child we would take and train. That has 
carried on for a long time very successfully C 
deed ; and Governor Barclay, in one of k 
letters, says, if we could establish a similar in: _ ^ 
tution at the Seychelles, he has no doubt ik''^ 
the Mauritius government would make a 
for the purpose. 
1343. Mr. Kennaway.] You would prefer W 
any settlement of slaves should be under ^ ^ 
British flag?—We take that position, because 
liberated slave is a British subject ; the pre¿^¿ 
Act of Parliament requires that slaves shall l 
liberated in British dominions ; that is the p^^ 
from which we start. 1 
1344. Do you think, supposing the libet^j^^ 
slaves were congregated at the Seychelles, 
would be able to isolate them from the immorak ' 
of the place ; it has a bad character atpre^ ^, 
has it not?—It has a bad character; the 
chelles consists of a group of seven islands, 
the evidence we have rather leads to the con^ . 
sion that Mahi would be the best lor our 0^^ 
tions ; but we have no doubt that we should y 
able so to train the emancipated slaves as to 
vent them from being affected by any iminor^k j 
there may be in the place ; and, moreover, ik 
are only children ; and it is a point which y) 
important to bear in mind that a large majority 
the slaves captured are children. à 
1345. Mr. Kumaird.] The Church Missioß^) 
Society are willing to undertake that work' , 
Yes. 
1346. You only ask the Government to 
Ijgi' 
tribute a small payment ?—-Six-pence per - .g 
per diem would completely cover the exp^k^^i 
that is what the Government have given 
Sierra Leone 
1347. Mr. J. 
settlement at 
Talbot.] Why would not sit^ ^ 
Zanzibar be satisfactory?— 
seems to be very little evidence as to the 
the Sultan could bring to bear to protect k 
rated slaves there. Besides, from what I k^i)' 
read I should say that Zanzibar is a verf J 
healthy place ; the only place where a d^^l'