4 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 
Hon. 
C. Vivian. 
lO July 
1871. 
have calculated it at 20,000 L a year, but I make 
out, unless Dr. Kirk has included also the sale 
of slaves, that in 1867-8 he must have got about 
56,000 1. by the tax upon slaves, that is to say, 
270,000 dollars ; whether that included the sale of 
slaves as well as the tax, I do not know. 
38. According to that Report the value of a 
slave in the interior appears to be only a few 
yards of cloth?—Yes; at Zanzibar he is worth 
from 17 to 25 dollars. 
39. What is his value on the coast of Arabia ? 
—I believe about 60 dollars ; but it must vary. 
40. At what season of the year is the trade 
most active in Zanzibar?—From January to 
March is the time when the northern Arabs 
generally come down ; then I think they go up 
again in March and April, and again in August 
and September. 
41. Mr. K.mnaird.~\ Is the trade carried on 
generally, by the same set of people ?—Yes ; it is 
a regular trade ; where they come from and who 
they are you will hear better from Mr. Churchill, 
but they are evidently old hands at the trade. 
42. Chairman^ You told us that the slaves 
were principally exported to Muscat in the first 
instance?—Yes, and to ports in the Persian Gulf, 
and they go from there in small craft to the 
highest market. 
43. Do the slave dealers come principally from 
the northern parts of Arabia ?■—Yes. 
44. What measures have Her Majesty’s Go 
vernment taken to deal with these evils, and to 
suppress the slave traffic?—They obtained first 
of all the limitation I have already described to 
you ; they found out when these Arabs principally 
came down from the north, and they obtained 
from the Sultan of Zanzibar his declaration that 
no export of slaves should take place between the 
prohibited periods. 
45. Was not that at the cost of recognising a 
legal traffic in slaves during a certain time of the 
year?—No doubt we have always recognised the 
fact of slavery being a legal institution at Zanzi 
bar. Zanzibar consists partly of the mainland and 
partly of the Islands, and the sovereign has always 
claimed the right of transporting domestic slaves 
from his possession on the continent to his pos 
sessions on the islands. 
46. Waiving for a moment the question of the 
propriety of that local slave trade, that is a very 
small proportion of the slave trade, which we are 
here inquiring into ?—Yes, it is under the cloak 
of that that these northern Arabs have managed 
to carry their slaves to the north ; they are pro 
tected as long as they are within those limits, 
whether they are there for legal or illegal pur 
poses. 
47. Have our Government proposed to enter 
into a new treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, 
and if so, to what effect, and with what result ?— 
They proposed on the 16th of June last year to 
enter into a treaty to the following effect : To 
limit the shipment of slaves from the mainland 
to one point only on the African coast ” (it now 
extends over 350 miles of coast), “ namely. 
Dar Selam, and to prohibit entirely their ex 
port from any other places.” To make Zan 
zibar the only port for the reception of slaves 
shipped from Dar Selam, but with liberty to 
transport them thence to Pemba and Mombaza 
only” ; (those two being the other islands which 
want slaves also, we did not wish to prohibit 
them from transporting them to those other 
islands ; we only wished that all slaves should be 
taken to Zanzibar, and from there shipped to the 
other islands, so as to have a double check upon 
them.) “ Imports of slaves to any other place, or 
which have not come through Zanzibar, should 
be declared illegal, and liable to seizure. That 
the number of slaves exported from Dar Selam 
to Zanzibar, and thence to Pemba and Mombaza, 
shall be strictly limited to the actual require 
ments of the inhabitants of those places, to be 
annually settled by mutual consent between the 
Sultan and the British agent ; such number to be 
gradually decreased, so as to cease altogether 
within a certain time. That every vessel engaged 
in the transport of slaves shall be liable to cap 
ture, unless she is provided with a proper pass 
from the Sultan, which shall be valid only for one 
voyage, and with distinctive marks on her hull 
and sails, a heavy penalty being attached to any 
piracy of these passes or marks. That the public 
slave markets at Zanzibar shall be closed. That 
the Sultan shall engage from the date of the treaty 
to punish severely any of his subjects who may 
be proved to be concerned, directly or indirectly, 
in the slave trade, and especially any attempt to 
molest or interfere with a liberated slave. That 
the Kutchees and other natives of Indian States 
under British protection, shall be forbidden, alter 
a date to be fixed by the Government of India, 
to possess slaves ; and that in the meantime they 
shall be prevented from acquiring any ffieslf slaves. 
Lastly, the treaty should contain a stipulation, 
providing for the eventual entire prohibition of the 
export of slaves from the mainland. 
48. That is not yet a treaty ?—No ; Mr. 
Churchill was engaged in pressing it upon the 
late Sultan when he died. 
49. Has it been pressed upon the present Sul 
tan ?—We have sent out instructions to press it 
upon the present one, but pending this Committee 
nothing more has been done. 
50. Mr. Kinnaird.'\ The Foreign Office is 
waiting the result of this Committee to take fur 
ther action?—That I do not know : I say we 
have not done anything more pending the in 
quiry of this Committee. There is a new Sultan 
now, and our proposals have been pressed upon 
him. 
51. Mr. Crum-EicmgMr. Churchill has not 
been stopped in negotiating this treaty in a 
friendly way with the Sultan?—It is Dr. Kirk 
now who is acting in place of Mr. Churchill ; on 
the contrary. Dr. Kirk has received instructions 
to press the same terms upon the Sultan, but the 
time and the mode of his doing it are left to his 
discretion. 
52. Chairman.^ Have Her Majesty’s Govern 
ment invited the co-operation of foreign powers in 
checking the slave trade ?—They have ; they 
have invited the co-operation of France, of 
Persia, and of Turkey. 
53. Not Portugal?—No; I think it appears by 
a report amongst the last slave trade papers, that 
there is no slave trade at all on the Portuguese 
shore, or hardly any ; it stops at Cape Delgado, I 
think. Slavery is abolished now in Portugal en 
tirely. 
54. Would you say there was any slave trade 
carried on from Zanzibar, under any flag except 
the Arab flag?—Yes; we had a representation 
that there was a slave trade carried on under the 
French flag; we have not got a right to search 
French vessels ; if we have strong suspicions that 
a vessel sailing under the French flag is engaged 
in the slave trade, we can examine her papers, 
and