54

minutes  of  evidence  taken  before  select  committee

20  July
1871.

tic  slaves  on  board,  would  in  your  opinion  account
L.  Or.  Heath,  for  a  great  number  of  these  at  present  unaccounted
for?—No,  I  think  not;  because  till  November
1869,  dhows  having  domestic  slaves  on  boards  had
always  been  captured.
707.  In  1868,  66  dhows  were  captured,  while
in  1869  only  32  were  captured  ;  but  if  this  order
did  not  come  till  November  1869,  it  would  not
have  any  bearing  upon  that  decrease  ?—No  ;  the
larger  number  of  captures  in  the  earlier  year  was,
because  in  the  previous  year  the  slave  dealers  had
been  left  alone,  owing  to  the  Abyssinian  War.
708.  There  is  a  large  diiference  between  those
captured  and  those  who  appear  from  the  Custom
House  returns  to  have  been  exported,  and  which
are  unaccounted  for  in  any  way  ?—Yes.
709.  Sir  R.  Anstrutherr\  What  means  have  you
of  distinguishing  domestic  slaves  on  board  a  dhow
from  any  other  slaves?—The  Admiralty  in  that
circular  have  laid  down  as  a  definition  of  what  are
to  be  considered  domestic  slaves,  “  where  the
slaves  found  on  board  are  very  few  in  number,
are  unconfined,  and  appear  to  be  on  board  for  the
purpose  of  loading  or  working  the  ship,  or  attending ­
  upon  the  master  or  the  passengers,  and
there  is  no  other  evidence  that  the  vessel  is  engaged ­
  in  or  equipped  for  the  slave  trade.”
710.  I  may  take  it  as  your  view  that  the  action
of  this  circular  to  which  you  have  referred  has
been  more  or  less  to  impede  the  squadron  in  the
capture  of  slaves?—If  you  put  it  in  the  future
tense  it  will  have  that  efiect  very  largely,  I
think.  I  should  like  to  quote,  as  illustrating
my  views  on  that  point,  a  portion  of  my  annual
Report  of  22nd  January  1870  (it  is  in  the  Correspondence ­
  for  the  year  1870):  “On  the  6th
November,  their  Lordships  issued  ‘  Instructions
for  tiie  Guidance  of  Naval  Officers  employed  in
the  Suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade-’  Those  instructions ­
  forbid  the  detaining  of  vessels  having
slaves  on  board,  if  there  are  attendant  circumstances ­
  showing  that  the  slaves  are  not  being  transported ­
  for  the  purpose  of  being  sold  as  slaves;  and
there  is  added,  as  an  example  of  the  nature  of
those  cireumstances,  Where  the  slaves  found  on
board  are  very  few  in  number,  are  unconfined,
and  appear  to  be  on  board  for  the  purpose  of
loading  or  working  the  ship,  or  attending  upon
the  master  or  the  passengers,  and  there  is  no  other
evidence  that  the  vessel  is  engaged  in,  or  equipped
for,  the  slave  trade.’  I  believe  that,  just  as  it  is
said  a  drunkard  can  only  be  cured  by  total  abstinence, ­
  so  the  slave  trade  by  sea  can  only  be  put
down,  if  at  all,  by  a  rigid  forbidding  of  the  carrying ­
  to  sea  of  any  slaves  of  any  description.  As  I
have  before  remarked,  even  what  is  called  a
domestic  slave  is  not  only  a  saleable  article,  but
an  article  \\  hich  is  very  often  sold  ;  and  the  return ­
  of  those  embarked  to  the  port  thev  originally
left  depends  solely  upon  whether  or  no  a  good
oiler  has  been  made  for  them  at  the  ports  they
have  visited  in  the  interval.”
711.  Chairman.']  Seeing  that  the  fleet*  you
have  had  under  your  command  is  not  sufficient
to  prevent  the  escape  of  a  very  large  proportion
of  the  slaves  exported,  has  your  attention  been
directed  to  any  measures  which  might  be  adopted
to  prevent  the  continuance  of  the  slave  trade  ?—
In  answer  to  your  question,  I  will  quote  part  of
my  letter  dated  1st  March  1869,  addressed  to  the
Secretary  of  the  Admiralty,  in  the  Blue  Book,
containing  the  correspondence  of  1869  :  I  observe ­
  that  it  is  not  unusual  to  close  these  reports
with  an  expression  of  hope  that  the  heavy  blows

which  have  been  dealt  at  the  trade  during  th&
past  year,  will  go  far  to  check  it  for  the  future-I
  can  express  no  such  hope.  The  trade  is  fat
too  profitable,  and  will  not  be  affected  by  a  risk
so  small  as  that  incurred  by  the  proceedings  of
Her  Majesty’s  ships.  It  supplies  a  want  which
has  not  been  left  unsatisfied  for  many  centuries
past  ;  a  want  which,  sanctioned  by  the  relio-ioU
of  the  country,  has  grown  almost  into  an  instinct.
To  pant  down  this  trade,  requires  far  more  effort,
and  far  more  energy  than  England  has  yet  shown
in  the  matter.  Twenty-five  years  have  elapsed
since  the  first  treaty  with  Muscat,  and  all  that
time  we  have  been  contented  with  the  capture  of
a  very  small  per-centage  of  the  total  exports  ;  a
per-centage  large  enough  to  irritate  the  legal
traders,  who  are  harrassed  and  annoyed  bv  the
visits  of  our  cruisers,  but  too  small  to  affect
materially  the  illegitimate  trade,  ^Ye  must  do
far  more  than  this  to  insure  success.  We  must
double  or  treble  our  squadron.  lYe  must  establish ­
  vice  consulates  at  the  ports  of  export,  but
above  all,  we  must  force  the  Government  of
Zanzibar  into  active  acquiescence  in  our  views,
and,  if  necessary,  purchase  or  take  possession  of
that  island.”  In  subsequent  letters  urging  the
same  view,  I  have  altered  this  last  sentence,
and  said,  “  purchase  the  sovereignty  of  the
island.”  ^
712.  Is  that  the  only  thing  that  occurs  to  you
as  a  means  of  putting'  a  stop  to  the  trade  ?—I
think  that  if  a  treaty  is  made  in  the  sense  of
Lord  Clarendon’s  proposals  to  Mr.  Churchill
(page  30,  Correspondence  of  1870),  if  that  part  of
the  existing  treaty  which  is  supposed  to  alloW
domestic  slavery  afloat  is  abrogated,  and  if  the
squadron  is  increased  so  as  to  make  it  difficult
to  evade  that  treaty  when  made,  we  shall  have
a  chance  of  success;  but  I  still  hold  that  the
only  radical  cure  will  be  the  making  Zanzibar  a
centre  from  which  British  civilisation  can  radiate
into  that  part  of  Africa
713.  You  mean  becoming  actually  possessed
of  it  as  being  a  colony  of  Great  Britain?—Yes.
714.  Or  a  protected  state  ?—That  is  a  matter
for  the  Foreign  Office  to  determine.
715.  Zanzibar  is  not  a  very  healthy  place,  is
it?  Zanzibar  is  undoubtedly  an  unhealthy  place,
but  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  more  so  than  many
other  tropical  colonies  or  English  settlements.
716.  We  heard  of  its  being  im%)ossible  to  sleep
out  of  the  town?—Bishop  Tozer  has  a  sort  of
missionary  school  superintended  by  two  or  three
English  ladies,  and  he  has  two  or  three  clergymen ­
  with  him.  I  know  he  has  a  farm-house  three
miles  outside  Zanzibar,  and  my  belief  is  that  that
is  considered  a  sort  of  sanatorium.  Captain
Fraser,  an  Englishman,  who  has  a  large  sugat
manufactory,  goes  out  to  his  estate  as  a  sort  of
change,  when  he  wants  fresh  air,  and  I  was  surprised ­
  to  hear  the  accounts  given  by  General
Rigby  of  the  extreme  deadliness  of  the  climate.
/17.  Are  you  able  to  give  us  any  information
as  to  the  ^  nealthmess  of  those  parts  of  the  coast
where  it  is  proposed  that  vice  consuls  should  be
stationed  .  —  The  only  fact  I  know  as  to  that  is,
that  a  Ml.  Heale,  an  Englishman,  engaged  in  the
purchase  of  hides  at  Brava,  lived  there  for  some
nmnths,  and  I  never  heard  that  he  was  seriously
affected  by  the  climate.
718.  Have  you  read  the  Report  of  the  Committee ­
  which  sat  at  the  Foreign  Office?—Yes,  I
read  it,  and  I  was  called  upon  officially  to  report
upon  it.

719.  Is