66 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 
Rct. 
H. Waller. 
24 July 
1871- 
&36. That was not for export?—Not for export 
at that time, but ii the opportunity offered they 
would have exported those slaves. 
937. If they could have got for them such a 
price as would have compensated them for the 
loss of their labour on their estates ?—Yes. 
938. Our attention is rather directed to that 
portion of the trade which you have described as 
being carried on by the Northern Arabs ?—If 
you will allow me I should very much like to 
avail myself of the opportunity of describing 
the cruelties I have seen connected with the 
collecting of the slaves. I think I am not 
asking too much to be allowed to state this, 
because I know that many of the slaves taken 
from the part of the country we were in find 
their way to Mozambique, and that many of them 
find their way to Zanzibar. Dr. Livingstone 
recognised slaves at Zanzibar that had been 
brought from that part of the country, and I 
have recognised at Mozambique some who had 
recently been taken from the highlands, and 
indeed the slaves themselves told us where they 
had seen us, so that we could at once identify 
them as having been drawn from the country we 
had been in. I think that attention should be 
prominently called to the condition of those un 
fortunate people in their transit from the interior, 
because, though I can quite see that one’s mouth 
is rather closed as to the status of a slave when 
he gets to an Arab master, that has nothing to do 
with the sufferings connected with his capture. 
It is true that a slave is well treated by his Arab 
master ; as has been well observed, a man will 
not illtreat his slave so as to hurt him, any more 
than he w ill his horse, but life is so cheap in the 
interior of the country that this rule does not 
hold good at all, as far as regards what takes 
place before the slave is finally sold. When I 
first went there in 1861 (and the state of things 
was even worse when I left in 1864), the ordi- 
nary price of a slave was two yards of calico ; 
that is to say, for a boy 10 years of age : a 
woman would fetch something more if she was 
likely to be sold to the Kaffirs, or if she was 
likely to go on to one of the Portuguese farms, 
or to go to any of the Portuguese in Mozam 
bique ; she might have fetched eight yards of 
calico ; but the price varied very much. The 
process of catching the slaves is this : the slave 
dealer goes into the country with so many mus 
kets, and so many pieces of calico, and he finds out 
the most powerful chief, and he gives him spirits 
and keeps him in a state of semi-drunkenness the 
whole time, and tells him he must have more 
slaves ; he gives him muskets and powder on 
account, and the man immediately finds out an 
opportunity to settle some old outstanding quar 
rel with some other chief, and therefore a war 
breaks out. As soon as war breaks out, favour 
able conditions are created for the carrying on 
of the slave trade, because famine is sure to fol 
low in a country where the people are dependent 
on one w^et season for tilling the ground, for it is 
only during the wet season that corn can be sown. 
Then a chief without food and without the means 
of buying food, will sell off his people very 
cheaply indeed. Captures are made in war. 
Kidnapping is prevalent all over the country ; 
which leads again to all sorts of petty disputes and 
retaliation, and the more disturbed the country 
is, the cheaper slaves become ; so cheap do they 
at last become, that I have known children 
of tiie age of from eight to 10 years bought for j 
less corn than would go into one of our hats, i 
and you may easily imagine where they are i 
bought so cheaply, and where they fetch so large , 
a price on the coast, it pays the slave dealer very ■ 
well to collect as many as he can, knowing that , 
he must lose a certain proportion on the way, but ; 
also knowing that the remnant he saves will pay ‘ 
him a very large profit. It is like sending up for 
a large block of ice to London in the hot weather ; : 
you know that a certain amount will melt away 
before it reaches you in the country as it travels 
down; but that which remains will be quite suffi' | 
cient for your wants. 
939. Chairman?^ Can you give us any idea 
of the comparative price of a slave on the coast, 
and in the interior where they are bought ?—I ' 
ascertained the price of slaves at Mozambique, 
and I found they were worth there about eight 
dollars, the same slaves having been bought in i 
the interior for a few yards of calico. I 
940. Sir R. Ansirutker?^ What is the propor- ; 
tion of waste of life m the transit ? —It is very , 
difficult to say what is the waste of life in the 
transit without having travelled with a slave 
caravan the whole way. Sickness may break 
out; they may cross a part of the country where 
there is verj little food, and then many die of 
famine. Then, again, if there is anything like 
insubordination in the slave gang, the axe and 
knife are used very freely indeed, and an indis- i 
criminate slaughter takes place amongst all those i 
who are strong enough to be at all obstreperous, i 
We liberated a gang of 84 slaves one morning, : 
and within a few miles of the place where we ; 
liberated them we were shown places in the bush ; 
where slaves had been killed only that morning ; j 
one poor woman had a child on her back which | 
she had recently given birth to, and which she | 
was too weak to carry further, and the slave j 
dealer took it by the heels and dashed its brains ! 
against a tree ; another woman was ill herselfj I 
and could not keep in the line, and the slave 
dealer dashed her brains out with the axe, and 
she was cut out of the slave thong. They are | 
all united in a long string, the men being yoked I 
in heavy forked sticks, which are kept on theit ¡ 
necks from the time they are captured till the 
time they are delivered to the slave shipper, some 
times for six weeks and sometimes even three 
months at a time. 
941. Chairman.'] What is the time generally 
occupied in the transit to the coast ?—It varies ; 
the slave gang is made up as the dealers travel 
about ; they do not collect all the slaves at one 
place and go straight to the coast, the slaves are 
marched to and fro in the country, to a chief here ; 
and to another there, wherever the dealers hear 
that slaves are to be sold, and then they are all ' 
eventually taken to the coast. The travelling is 
very slow ; I should say it is no uncommon thing 
for a slave gang to be some three months from 
the time it is first formed to the time it reaches the 
coast. The loss of life is very terrible indeed, 
owing to the hardships of the transit, and owing 
to the brutality of the drivers. 
942. Dr. Livingstone, in one of his letters, ; 
estimates that about one-fifth reach the coast ’■> ! 
do you think that that would be a fair average ^ ¡ 
I should say that one-fifth do reach the coast, | 
perhaps more ; but I would also state this, that | 
the Doctor believes that for every slave that 
comes to the coast perhaps 10 lives are lost in th^ 
interior.