44
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE
P.®”’ happen to sight an English steamer at sea the
C. P. Rigby, slavers frequently cut the throats of the whole
„ 7~, number of the slaves on board and throw them
¡^8^; overboard.
^ ' 562. Then the sufferings of the slaves on board
are rather increased by our cruisers being stationed
on the coast?—Very much indeed ; there
is no doubt of it. I remember the case of a
dhow that was captured in the harbour of Zanzibar
by the ship “ Lyra.” I had had information
that that dhow had got slaves on board, and
just before she sailed I went with Captain Oldfield
of the Lyra,” and boarded the dhow.
There were 112 girls on board her, evidently
selected to be sold at a high pi ice for the harems
of Arabia and Persia. The dhow was taken
alongside the Lyra,” and these slaves were
taken out. A fatigue party from the Lyra ”
was sent into the dhow to take out the provisions,
but each man as he went into the hold of the
dhow fainted away ; the doctor then gave orders
that the vessel was to be towed out and scuttled,
and he said from the frightful stench, and the
state the dhow was in, if she had gone to sea,
there could be no doubt that in a week the whole
of those slaves would have died ; that I think is
a very common case. They go to sea so ill ju’ovided,
that the sufferings of the slaves are very
great, and particularly if they have put off their
departure to the last, or if the northern winds, set
in earlier than usual, and they cannot beat
up against them ; then the sufferings are
frightful.
563. Mr. Shaio L<‘fev)e.~\ What is the average
length of the voyage to Muscat ?—Thirty to 35
days; it they have any slaves on board, they have
to put in at two or three ports for water ; and
that circumstance gives great facility to our
cruisers to check the trade, because they have
only to watch a few ports on the coast to the
north, and they are sure to catch a great many
of those dhows.
564. Chairman^ Do you think by active
exertions on the part of our cruisers, the trade
could be prevented, looking at the large profit
there is on the slaves ?—I have not the slightest
doubt that within five years it could be entirely
stopped ; but to stop it, we want what we have
never yet had, viz., system ; one year you get an
active officer on the coast, who enters into the
spirit of the thing, and checks the trade a good
deal; then he goes away, and another man comes
with quite different opinions; or you get a captain
of a cruiser who takes the advice of the Consul
and pulls with him, and he does a great deal of
good; and then, perhaps just as he has become
acquainted with the secrets of the trade, and
begins to know where the slaves are shipped, and
where the dhows put in for water, and can distinguish
between a legitimate trader and a slave
dhow, which it takes a long time to do, he is
ordered away and never goes back again.
565. If one slave dhow in five arrived at its
destination in safety, would it pay for the loss of
four?—No; I do not think it would. I should
say that the loss of one would take the profits
upon four ; because, when you take the price of
provisions and all together, there is not so much
profit.
566. So that if the cruisers succeeded in captunng
one out of five, you think it would be
sufficient to destroy the trade?—Yes; I do not
think they have hitherto captured anything like
that proportion.
567. What force has there been on that coast?
—There has never been any regular squadron
kept up. ^ When I was there, the squadron that
the Admiralty sent out was a common cause of
joking amongst the French, and the Americans,
and the Germans. That such a squadron should
be sent out to check the slave trade was an absurdity.
There was the “ Sidon,” an old tub, that
any dhow on the coast could beat ; there was the
“ Gorgon,” that took 40 days to do 800 miles, and
vessels of that class, perfectly useless for any other
service.
568. Y ou think that the cruisers alone could
put a stop to the trade ; but does it occur to you
that any means might be taken to make it the
interest of the Zanzibar people to put a stop to
the trade ?—I think the Zanzibar Arabs are now
fully aware that it will be stopped, and their ideas
are very different now as to their own interests
to what they were a few years ago. The late
Sultan of Zanzibar sent his brother-in-law and a
cousin on a mission to the Queen two years ago,
and at the Sultan’s particular request I was appointed
to take charge of the mission. The person
who acted as secretary is now the minister
to the present Sultan, Syed Burgash, and in
talking with him daily on the subject, he said that
the Arabs are now beginning to find out that the
English are quite right, that there is far more
money to be made by keeping the labourers in
the country and cultivating the rich valleys by
their labour, than by selling them out of the
country.
569. Mr. Shaw Lefevre.~¡ Would they be employed
as slaves in the country ?—Tljere would
always be a certain form of slavery on the coast,
but it is _ not attended with any cruelty. Arabs
are passionate and hot tempered, but they are
not cruel to their slaves ; they are nothing like
the French or the Portuguese in their treatment
of slaves.
570. Chairman.'] They would have the power
of stopping it altogether without our cruisers if
they were really in earnest, and if they were
satisfied that it would be to their interest to keep
the slaves in their own country as labourers ?-—
The difficulty is that the Zanzibar Arabs are so
much afraid of these piratical tribes from the
north, that come down with the north winds in
great numbers.
♦571. Who make expeditions into the interior,
and capture the slaves?—No, those are men of a
different class, those are half castes, who organise
those expeditions, and plunder slaves from the
interior.
572. They are the men who provide the slaves
for the northern Arabs?—Yes.
573. Have ¡you any suggestion to make with
regard to what might be done in the way of putting
a pressure upon the Sultan to induce him
to put a stop to the trade ?—We have tried all
sorts of means thiough treaties, through remonstrances,
and through advice, and they have all
done very little good. From what ï know of
Syed Bui gash, I do not think he would be sO
^ ^^^clined to meet our views as the late
Sultan w^, but I have always been of opinion
that our Government should put down the slave
trade with a strong hand.
574. In what way ?—I wrote out a short extract
from one of Lord Pahnerton’s letters to my
predecessor, and I often used to read a tranlation
of it in the “Durbar” to the Sultan, and I often
gave copies of it in Arabic to the principal
chief®
