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 Secretaries
of the Church Missionary Society?—I
am,
1337. Has your society been instituting inquiries
with respect to the suitability of Seychelles
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 suitable
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 institution
; 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 applied
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 institution
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, finding
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 Witness
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 consideration,
and we believe that the recommendations
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 contained
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 dealiPwith
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'
