ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
121.
Query 4.—Has the so-called French Free-labour Emigration Trade” ceased to carry Appendix, No, 7.
on its operations on the east coast of Africa? I have been given to understand that the
scheme was abolished by order of the French Government; have you received any official
intimation oí the fact?
Answer.—For about a year past I have only heard of one French vessel being engaged
in the so-called “ Free Labour Emigration Trade.” When Her Majesty’s ship ‘‘ Brisk”
was at Johanna, in the month of December last, a French vessel arrived there filled with
negroes which were being conveyed to La Reunion. Within the last few days I have
received information that French vessels are again engaging labourers at Mozambique; but
as it is only from native reports, I do not yet know whether the information is correct. I.
have not received any official intimation of the abolition by order of the French Government
of the so-called free-labour” system. I saw in the public journals the order of the
French minister of Algeria and the Colonies, dated the öth January 1859, directing the
Governor of La Reunion to adopt the most stringent measures to forbid any engagement
of labourers either on the eastern coast of Africa or at Madagascar, or at the Comoros, as
well as the importation into La Reunion of immigrants from those places, or from Sainte
Marie, Mayotte, and Nossi Beh.
Query 5.—What measures would you deem advisable and most effectual for arresting
the trade in slaves on the line of coast above referred to?
Answer.—In the Portuguese territories on the east coast the export of slaves is carried
on in direct violation of the treahes, and contrary to the laws of Portugal, its causes are,
the dishonesty of the officials and the demoralised state of the half-caste inhabitants;
they set the laws and orders of the sovereign at defiance. ï understand that the Home
Government of Portugal affords no pecuniary support to its East African possessions, and
that all the employés, including the Governor General, are dependent on the colonial treasury
for their salaries. The treasury is under the control of a council, and the Governor
General is very much dependent on it. The blighting rule of the Portuguese has almost
entirely destroyed all legitimate trade, and they are therefore very much dependent on the
slave trade for their support. Until an entire change of system takes place in the mode of
government of these possessions, no hope exists of the slightest effort being made by the
Portimuese colonial authorilies to check the slave traffic, for they all connive at it, and
receive large bribes for doing so. The position of the Governor General of the Mozam
bique witirregard to this traffic is very similar to that of the Sultan of Zanzibar ; both are
surrounded by such unprincipled rogues, that however they may themselves desire to suppress
it, they could not depend upon a single individual to carry out their orders or act
honestly : thus, so far as regards the line of coast belonging to Portugal, the only hope of
any successful efforts being made for the suppression of this cruel traffic rests upon the
British cruisers. I state an opinion that I have heard expressed by many officers of Her
Majesty’s navy employed on the east coast, that the class of vessels at present employed in
cruising for slavers is not at all adapted to the service now that the slaves are generally
exported in very swift sailing clipper-built ships. The pivof of this is found in the fact
that no square-rigged vessel engaged in the slave trade on the east coast of Africa has been
captured by one of Her Majesty’s cruisers during six years preceding the last few months,
since which Her Majesty’s ship “ Lyra ” lias captured two, and the “ Brisk one slaver.
As far as I am competent to form an opinion on such a subject, it appears to me that a few
fast screw gnu-boats of light draught, under active officers, would soon render the slave
trade on this coast an unprofitable speculation, and lead to its abandonment by the
Cuban Spaniards, who are chiefly engaged in it. Should this subject engage the attention
of Her Majesty’s Government, I believe no oflicer is more capable of forming a correct
opinion on the best means to be adopted than Commander Oldfield, r. n., commanding
Her Majesty’s ship “ Lyra,” who has had more experience and been more successful iu
making captures than any other officer.
With respect to the export of slaves from the Zanzibar dominions, daily experience more
and more convinces me of the utter impotence of the Sultan to stop it, and that the treaties
for the suppression of the slave trade entered into by the late Irnâin and the British Government
are now, and always have been, practically null and void. I have arrived at this
opinion by slow conviction. When T first carne to Zanzibar the consulate had been closed
for 14 months, and every soul in the country was interested in concealing the slave traffic
fromme. Shortly after disturbances commenced which lasted for several im ntlis, and
during this time I made every allowance for the many instances of illegal slave dealing
which came to my notice. But subsequent experience has fully proved to me that a very
extensive export of slaves from the Zanzibar territories still is, and always has been, carried
on, not only in dhows and coasting craft to the Persian Gulf and coast of Arabia, but also
in French and American built ships, under the Spanish and Mexican flags, to Cuba and
other places. However desirous the Sultan may be to fulfil his treaty engagements and
put a stop to this traffic, he has in reality no power. No one in his service will carry out
any orders he may give on the subject. The public opinion of the Arabs is too strong in
favour of it, and almost all the chief people in his dominions are either directly or indirectly
concerned in it. Soon after my arrival in Zanzibar the French consul showed me the copy
of a Despatch which he had forwarded to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which
he stated, as a proof of all the Zanzibar chiefs being in favour of the foreign slave trade, that
Prince Abdool Wahab, the younger brother of the Sultan, and Syud Suleiman bin Hamed,
the wealthy Governor of the town of Zanzibar, had recently sold 300 slaves each to a
French ship. I afterwards discovered that the ship to which he alluded was the “ Pallas,”
0.116. Q and
