II?- 
 
 ■■&^ 
 
 
 
 W^i"- 1# 
 
 
 
 
 M \»ivi^
 
 L I B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VLRS ITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS
 
 THE SLAYE TRADE 
 
 EAST AFRICA. 
 
 (REPRINTED FItOM THE " CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.") 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 SALISBURY SQUARE. 
 
 1869.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY C. K. HODGSON & SON, 
 
 GOUGH SyUAKBr I LEET STREET.
 
 THE 
 
 SLAVE TRADE OF EAST AFRICA. 
 
 Exactly one hundred years have passed since Granville 
 Sharpe gave to the world the result of his enquiries into the law 
 of England on the toleration of slavery in this kingdom. The 
 basis of this investigation was, it may be remembered, the 
 opinion given in 1729, by the then Attorney and Solicitor- 
 Generals, Yorke and Talbot, that a slave, by coming to England, 
 did not become free, and might be legally compelled, to return 
 with his master to the plantations. Granville Sharpe, after a 
 careful examination of the subject, concluded '' that the senti- 
 ment of Lord Chief Justice Holt, that as soon as a negro comes 
 into England he becomes free, might safely be preferred to all 
 contrary opinions.^' 
 
 Soon afterwards, the action brought on behalf of the negro 
 Somerset, aflbrded an opportunity of testing the correctness of 
 this opinion, and for the establishment as a rule of law, of Lord 
 Chief Justice Holt's now well-known sentiment. 
 
 Least prominent in the contest which led to this result, 
 though its real mainspring, stands the figure of Granville 
 Sharpe, the prosecutor, who, though poor and immersed in 
 the duties of a toilsome daily occupation, supplied the money, 
 the leisure, the perseverance, and the learning required for this 
 great controversy, and yet had carefully concealed his own 
 connection with it, fearful lest so humble a name should weaken 
 a cause so momentous. 
 
 With no special education, and but little leisure, the Ordnance
 
 clerk had, by unflincliing industry and toil^ proved himself on a 
 par, if not superior, in one main branch of English law, to some 
 of our most eminent judges of that period ; such at least is the 
 dictum of the late Sir James Stephen, One hundred years have 
 passed away, a century marked by events *as important as any 
 that have transpired in the world's history, and among them 
 no landmark stands out more conspicuously than the monu- 
 ment which records the history of the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade. To Granville Sharpe belongs the honour of having first 
 aroused in the Enghsh mind a sense of the enjoyment of a free- 
 dom so perfect, so ennobhng, so gracious, as to cover and 
 enfi'anchise all who share with EngHshmen the privilege of 
 treading English soil. 
 
 When, in the mercy of God to Africa, a few earnest men were 
 found whose heai'ts bled for her wrongs, and whose hands were 
 strong to redress those wrongs, foremost as leaders stood 
 Granville Sharpe, Clarkson, and William Wilberforce. To the 
 first was committed the presidency of the Society formed for 
 the Abohtion of the Slave Trade, and to Wilberforce was 
 assigned the general superintendence and Parliamentary ma- 
 nagement of the cause. The century whose commencement 
 we have marked has passed away, and we witness the result of 
 these men's labours ; truly they have laboured, and we have 
 entered into their labours. They contemplated but the over^ 
 throw of a gigantic evil, the curse of Africa's sons ; we see that 
 curse removed, and in place of the slaver and the slave barra- 
 coon, we see, looking from the very spot where John Newton 
 lamented his captivity in the service of Satan, a Freeto^vn, 
 many of whose inhabitants, once slaves, or the children of 
 slaves, are now free men in Christ Jesus. Nay more ; we see 
 the Gospel carried into the old haunts of the slavers ; and as the 
 sailor makes for the bar of Lagos, that last haunt of the slave 
 trade, his landmark for the harbour is the spire of an English 
 church, one of three erected there by the Church Missionaiy 
 Society. Still further on we find a native Christian church in 
 Abeokuta, and at various places on the Niger, native churches, 
 their spiritual father himself once a slave, now a bishop of our 
 

 
 own beloved Church. The century may well close with words 
 taken from an evening paper which, writing in May last, pro- 
 nounces the African slave trade to be a thing of the past, 
 adding that the British cruiser is not the only obstacle to the 
 trade, but the want of purchasers has rendered the trade 
 useless and unprofitable, and never to be resuscitated. 
 
 It may be well, in directing the attention of our readers to 
 the slave trade at present carried on with all the horrors of the 
 old trade, upon the East Coast of Africa, to call to remembrance 
 the cix'cumstances under which the battle of the West Coast 
 slave trade was fought and won. The disappointments and 
 failures in that conflict may not be familiar to all, and many of 
 our readers may be surprised to learn that twenty long years of 
 labour and sorrow were consumed ere Mr. Wilberforce^s efforts 
 for the abolition of the slave trade were crowned with success. 
 In 1789, he first proposed the abolition of the slave trade in the 
 House of Commons, and it was not until April 1791, that the 
 question was brought directly to an issue. The two years that 
 had elapsed since his successful speech in 1 789, had sufficed to 
 change the current of popular feeling ; and some indication of 
 the temper of the time, and of the estimate formed by thinking 
 men of the difficulties in Wilberforce's path, may be gathered 
 from the following letter, penned by John Wesley on his dying 
 bed. They are probably the last written words of that great 
 servant of God : — 
 
 " Mr Dear Sir — Unless Divine power has raised yon up to be as 
 Athanasius contra inunduvi, I see not how you can g'o tliroug-li 
 your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villany which is 
 the scandal of religion, of England,' and of human nature. Unless 
 God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by 
 the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can 
 be against you ? Are all of them together stronger than God ? Oh, 
 be not weary in well-doing ! Go on in the name of God, in the 
 name of His might, till even American slavery, the vilest that ever 
 saw the sun, shall vanish away before it. That He who has guided 
 you from your youtli up may continue to strengthen you in this and 
 in all things, is the prayer of, dear Sir, your affectionate Servant, 
 
 " John Wesley." 
 
 The event justified these forebodings. Mr. Wilberforce's 
 
 motion was lost by a large majority ; even Mr. Pitt, with
 
 6 
 
 whom he had concerted his first measure, avowing his opinion 
 that it was wiser to await more tranquil times before the trade 
 coukl he abohshed. Again and again did Mr. Wilberforce 
 return to the attack. His perseverance was at len^h rewarded^ 
 and the House of Commons for the first time passed a Bill, in 
 1 794, for the immediate abolition of the trade. This Bill was 
 lost in the House of Lords ; and in succeeding Sessions Mr. 
 Wilberforce laboured zealously, though ineffectually, to induce 
 the House of Commons to resume the ground they had already 
 occupied. Defeat followed defeat, and the contest, which had 
 lasted for twelve years, seemed for a while to leave the advo- 
 cates of slavery the masters of the field. In 1802, however, 
 Mr. Wilberforce resumed his attempt, though under most dis- 
 couraging circumstances. A second time did the Bill pass the 
 Commons, only to be hung up in the Lords, and the question 
 was adjourned to the following Session. The next efibrt was 
 foiled; the House of Commons, in 1805, -rejecting the Bill, 
 inflicting upon Mr. Wilberforce distress and pain beyond that 
 suffered on any previous defeat.'* But the impending change in 
 the position of parties gave promise of hope. The Ministry of 
 Mr. Fox had scarcely succeeded Mr. Pittas Cabinet, when Bills 
 were introduced into the Lords, and a Resolution carried in the 
 Commons condemnatory of the trade ; and finally, in 1807, the 
 Bill was passed which condemned for ever the trade in slaves. 
 Twenty- six years afterwards, the abolition of slavery in all 
 British Dominions took place, and the example and influence 
 of England soon secured from all European powers treaty- 
 engagements by whicli trade in African slaves was declared to 
 be piracy, and punishable as such. Under these treaties the 
 African squadron was maintained, and mixed courts instituted 
 at various ports around the African coast, for adjudging all 
 cases of capture or seizure of vessels engaged in the trade. 
 The watch maintained by the cruisers of the African squadron, 
 and the energy and interest in the subject displayed by the late 
 Lord Palmerston, have brought about the result we have 
 adverted to, and true it is, so far as the West Coast of Africa is 
 concerned, tliat the African Slave Trade is a thing of the past.
 
 But while this happy result is chronicled conccrniug the old 
 Atlantic Slave Trade, the annual reports of our Consul at 
 Zanzibar, and the despatches of the naval officers in command 
 of the few vessels which form the East African Squadron, tell 
 a very different story. JB'rom these reports and despatches, 
 which are annually presented to Parliament, we learn some 
 particulars of the trade in slaves, carried on between the East 
 African Coast and ports on the Persian Gulf, the Southern 
 shores of Arabia and Persia, and the Red Sea. Dr. Living- 
 stone, in his last work, " The Zambesi and its Tributaries,^' 
 speaks, from his o-rti personal observation, of the horrors and 
 atrocities which accompany the slave raids made to supply this 
 trade ; and the late Bishop of Mauritius, at the request of the 
 Committee, addressed a letter to the Earl of Chichester, as 
 President of the Church Missionary Society, calling attention 
 to the increasing- extent of tlie trade, and urgiug the Society 
 to take such measures as lay in their power to mitigate the 
 . evils and misery inflicted on that hapless land. Not unmindful 
 of the claim that all Africa has on the Society, a claim indi- 
 cated by its title, " The Church Missionaiy Society for Africa and 
 the East"," nor forgetting the link which binds the memory of 
 its eai'her days with the, circle which gathered round Wilber- 
 force, and with the contest in which he was the leader, the 
 Committee have, we rejoice to learn, responded to the call, and 
 we would venture to express our -confidence and trust in the 
 ultimate success of any cause undertaken in the calm prayerful 
 spirit which guides the deliberations of the men who compose 
 that Committee. 
 
 The measures decided upon by the Committee are twofold. 
 They have endeavoured, first, to apply to the present circum- 
 stances of the trade some mitigating remedy; and secondly, 
 by spreading information upon the subject, and by urging upon 
 the Government, with such influence as the Society may possess, 
 the adoption of measures for that purpose, to briug about the 
 suppression and extinction of this nefarioiis traffic. Most 
 gladly would we assist in this enterprise, and we therefore 
 propose to lay before our readers a short account of the present
 
 circumstances of this slave trade^ with some notice of the 
 remedial measures already adopted by the Church Missionary 
 Society, 
 
 We are indebted for the information we propose to supply, 
 to a pamphlet pubhshed by the Society, compiled from the 
 official correspondence upon the East African Slave Trade, to a 
 memorial recently presented by a deputation from the Society 
 to the Duke of Argyll, as Secretary of State for India, and to 
 the Parliamentary Blue Books of recent Sessions, on the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 It was in the year 1822 that the attention of the British 
 Government was first called to the traffic in slaves carried on 
 nominally between the African and Persian dominions of the 
 Imaum of Muscat, but in reality between his African dominions 
 and the very ports on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf to which 
 the slaves are now carried. The dominions of the Imaum at 
 that time comprised the petty state of Muscat, on the Southern 
 shore of the Persian Gulf, and a large portion of the African 
 coast, extending from Cape Delgado, at about 11 degrees South 
 Latitude, to a port called Jubb, about 1 degree South of the 
 Equator, including the large and important islands of Zanzibar, 
 Pemba, and Monfia. The British Government, while declaring 
 its intention of suppressing foreign slave trading, refused to 
 meddle with slavery as a domestic institution, and accordingly, 
 in the case of the Imaum of Muscat, determined to permit the 
 slave trade between port and port in his own dominions ; and a 
 treaty to this efiect was arranged between our Government and 
 the Imaum. This treaty, dated 10th September, 1822, stipu- 
 lates that the Imaum will abolish the trade in slaves between 
 his dominions and every Christian country. By the treaty and 
 a subsequent convention, authority to search and detain Muscat 
 vessels was given to Her Majesty's ships, and the ships of war 
 belonging to the East Indian Company ; and by a further 
 ao"reement, concluded between the Imaum of Muscat and Her 
 Majesty the Queen, on the 2nd October, 1845, the Imaum 
 ao-reed to prohibit, under the severest penalties, not only the 
 export of slaves from his African dominions, but also the im-
 
 9 
 
 portation of slaves from any part of Africa into liis dominions 
 in Asia. By tliat treaty permission is granted to our cruisers 
 to seize and confiscate any vessels carrying on slave trade, 
 except only such as are engaged in the transport of slaves from 
 one port to another of the Imaum's African dominions, between 
 the poi-t of Lamoo and its dependencies in South Lat., 9° 58', 
 and the port of Kilwa and its dependencies in 9° 2' South 
 Lat., including the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Monfia ; 
 thus limiting the traffic to the coastwise trade in the Imaum^'s 
 African dominions ; the effect of this limitation being never- 
 theless to continue a protection from our cruisers to the slavers, 
 over about half their journey North. '' ' ^'' ' ' -' 
 
 Upon the death of the grandfather of the pre'sem; liriRiim 
 (who is now in exile), his dominions were divided between his 
 two sons, one retaining the Persian, and the other succeeding 
 to the African territories, with the title of Sultan of Zanzibar. 
 This division was not effected without strife, which at one time 
 went the length of a threatened invasion of the Zanzibar terri- 
 tory by the Imaum, who had chartered for the occasion a fleet 
 of "dhows," used for the purposes of the slave-trade. But 
 the threatened invasion was summarily crushed by the appear- 
 ance of a British squadron, which intimated in unmistakeable 
 terms that England Avould permit no infringement of what she 
 regarded as her sole prerogative in those waters. A truce 
 was thereupon agreed to, and to a British officer was entrusted 
 the task of preparing a treaty between the brothers, and 
 settling the terms on which the division of territory should be 
 made. The main article of the treaty was, that, in considera- 
 tion of the superior wealth and extent of the African dominions 
 claimed by the Sultan of Zanzibar, he should pay to his poorer 
 brother, the Imaum, an annual subsidy of 40,000 crowns, equal 
 to about £8,000 sterling. 
 
 Subsequent events have shown that the particular source 
 whence this subsidy was to be drawn was the royalty derived 
 by the Sultan from the slave-trade, of which he has the keys. 
 We have been thus particular in detailing the connection be- 
 tween the saintly house of Muscat and the slave-trade, because.
 
 ]0 
 
 altliougli there are branches of the East Coast slave-trade 
 wholly unconnected with either Zanzibar or Muscat, there can 
 be no question that, since the decline of the Portuguese power, 
 and the extinction of the American trade, the principal abettors 
 of the trade have been the rulers of Muscat and Zanzibar. In 
 former days, about twenty to twenty-five years ago, our 
 cruisers used to seize slavers in the Mozambique Channel, 
 bound for Cuba or South America, and the writer well re- 
 members the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope of ship-loads 
 of these poor creatures, who were liberated thei'e, and appren- 
 ticed by the Government to such of the inhabitants as would 
 undertake for five years the support and training of the boy or 
 girl committed to their care. In place of this trade, now 
 defunct, there is a small trade in slaves carried on with Mada- 
 gascar and the French islands of Mayotta, Nos Be, and 
 Reunion ; the latter used to go under the name of the free en- 
 gauges system — a name pronounced by Colonel Playfair, the late 
 Consul at Zanzibar, to be but a synonym for the slave-trade. 
 
 We now come to the main division — the Northern Slave- 
 trade — which is carried on entirely by Arabs, and the chief 
 points between which it is pursued are froni the mainland 
 opposite and to the south of Zanzibar, to the islands of Zanzibar 
 and Peniba, and thence to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The 
 '^ dhows '^ used in the trade are rapid sailers before a wind, and 
 carry as many as 250 slaves. The season for making the run 
 North is during the southerly monsoon, from January to July 
 and August, and the traders avail themselves of the northerly 
 monsoon to come down to Zanzibar to make their purchases. 
 In dealing with the subject as it now is before us, we shall, 
 we think, present it best to our readers by endeavouring first 
 to follow the course of the " merchandize " from its first acqui- 
 sition to its final deportatiou, and then to detail some par- 
 ticulars showing the extent and present results of the trade, 
 and the eflbrts made for its suppression, calling attention, in 
 concluding, to the remedial measures proposed by the Church 
 Missionary Society.* 
 
 Let usj for our first purpose, accompany the slaving expe- 
 * See Appendix, Note A, p. 22.
 
 11 
 
 dition of some successful hunter, probably an Arab sheikh, 
 whose sacred writings inform him that all the African tribes 
 south of the Somalis are proper subjects for his sword and his 
 bow. Before starting on his exp. dition, he obtains from some 
 agent at Zanzibar the needful articles either for barter or 
 murder and kidnapping — beads, common cotton cloth, muskets, 
 and ammunition ; and the party starts for the interior, on what 
 is now a long and toilsome march across a country once well 
 cultivated and populous, but now desolated by the ravages of 
 these marauders. The beads and cloth are used for paying 
 their way during the early part of the journey, and for 
 the purchase of ivory. According to Dr. Livingstone, these 
 slaving parties seem to preserve their mercantile character for a 
 large portion of the trip. They usually settle down with some 
 chieftain and cultivate the soil, assisting him from time to time 
 in raids against neighbouring tribes for the sake of the captives 
 which their invariable success in these expeditions throws into 
 their power. Either by this means, or by barter and purchase, 
 the slave gang gradually accumulates; and we may form some 
 conception of the value set on life by these traffickers in human 
 flesh, by the price paid for the slave at his home, which we 
 learn to be a few yards of cotton cloth, or, as the case may be, 
 theft and murder. When the gang is sufficiently large to 
 cover the terrible percentage of deaths due to the march down, 
 and all preparations are completed, then commences the weary 
 awful march to death or captivity. We have before us two 
 records whence we can draw details of the atrocities perpe- 
 trated, during the march down, on these hapless '' miserables.''^ 
 Both accounts are given by eye-witnesses. The first is Dr. 
 Livingstone. In the work already mentioned, " The Zambesi 
 and its Tributaries,^^ is the following account of a slave party 
 he met with in the valley of the Shire : — 
 
 '' The slave party, a long line of manacled men, women, and 
 children, came wending their way round the hill and into the valley, 
 on the side of which the village stood. The black drivers, armed 
 with muskets, and bedecked with various articles of finery, marched 
 jauntily in the front, middle, and rear of the line, some of them 
 blowing exulting notes out of long tin horns. They seemed to feel
 
 12 
 
 that they -were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly march 
 with an air of triumph. But the instant the fellows canght a 
 glimpse of the English, they darted off like mad into the forest ; so 
 fast, indeed, that Ave caught but a ghmpse of their red caps and the 
 soles of their feet. The chief of the party alone remained, and he, 
 from, being in front, had his hand tightly gi-asped by a Makololo. 
 He proved to be a well known slave of the late commandant at 
 Tette, and for some time our own attendant while there. On asking 
 hini how he obtained these captives, he replied he had bought them ; 
 but on our enquii-ing of the people themselves, all save four said 
 they had been captui-ed in war. ^Yhile this enquiry was going on, 
 he bolted too. 
 
 " The captives knelt down, and, in their way of expressing thanks, 
 clapped their hands with great energy. They were thus left entirely 
 on our hands, and knives were soon busy at work cutting the women 
 and children loose. It was more difficult to cut the men adrift, as 
 each had his neck in the fork of a stout stick, six or seven feet long, 
 and kept in by an ii*on rod which was riveted at both ends across 
 the throat. With a saw, luckily in the Bishop's baggage, one by 
 one the men were sawn out into fi*eedom. The women, on being 
 told to take the meal they were carrying, and cook breakfast for 
 themselves and the children, seemed to consider the news too good 
 to be true ; but, after a little coaxing, went at it with alacrity, and 
 made a capital fire by which to boil their pots, with the slave sticks 
 and bonds, their old acquaintances through many a sad night and 
 weary day. Many were mere children, about five years of age and 
 under. One little boy, with the simplicity of childhood, said to our 
 mien, ' The others tied and starved us ; you cut the ropes and tell us 
 to eat. What sort of people are you ? Where did you come from ?' 
 Two of the women had been shot the day before, for attempting to 
 untie the thongs. This, the rest were told, was to prevent them 
 attempting to escape. One woman had her infant's brains knocked 
 out, because she could not carry her load and it ; and a man was 
 despatched with an axe, because he had broken doAvn with fatigue.'' 
 
 Onr next witness is Keuten, one of the party of eight Sepoys 
 sent from Bombay with Dr. LiA-ingstone, who^ overcome with 
 terror, deserted the traveller in the interior, and joined them- 
 selves to the slave gang of one Sideiman, an Arab chief. After 
 accompanying them to the coast, the Sepoys found their way to 
 Zanzibar, and the following is the deposition of the Sepoy, 
 made to Mr. Seward, the British Consul there. He says : — 
 
 " We left ^lataka with the slave-caravan of one Suleiman, an 
 Ai'ab. His band numbered 300 slaves, besides porters and servants, 
 but there were many other smaller bands varying in number ; 
 altogether there started about 900. It seemed one great regiment.
 
 13 
 
 " The slaves were yoked together in line, with forked sticks, their 
 hands bound ; women and children were simply bound.* 
 
 " We set out at daylight, and pitched camp at about 3 o'clock in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 " The slaves were compelled to sleep either in rows, head to head, 
 under a central bar, to which the ends of their forked sticks were 
 lashed ; or they were arranged in groups of from five to ten, in such 
 a manner that their sticks could all be brought together in the 
 middle of the group and lashed. 
 
 " They had to sleep upon their backs, their wrists bound before 
 them, helpless and unable to move. 
 
 " They were fed once a day with boiled jowarree and water. 
 
 " They were cheap : an adult cost two yards of common cotton 
 cloth, a child one yard. 
 
 " They were urged forward on the march like cattle, beaten about 
 the face and head. We witnessed many murders — many deaths ; 
 and the path was strewn with the bodies of those who had been 
 killed. 
 
 " When we passed up with Dr. Livingstone, the road stunk with 
 the way-side corpses ; it was so again when we passed down. 
 
 " Every day we came upon the dead, and certainly we witnessed 
 not less than a hundred deaths. 
 
 " Men were either killed by the club, or the dagger, or strangled. 
 
 " I with my own eyes (Reuten says) saw six men (at different 
 times) choked to death : the victims were forced to sit leaning 
 against a tree ; a strip of bark or a thong was looped around the 
 stem of the tree, pulled taut from behind, and the slave strangled. 
 
 " I saw not less than fifteen slaves clubbed to death by heavy 
 blows between the eyes (which bespattered theu' faces with blood) 
 or upon the head. 
 
 " Children were felled in this way, and put out of life by repeated 
 blows on the head. 
 
 " I have seen a porter in mercy carry a sick slave,t but some 
 who were so thin and worn that they could not walk, and whose 
 death was certain, were tossed aside into the bush. 
 
 " Others Avho had been so mercilessly beaten that but little life 
 remained in them, were unyoked, and with a kick and an oath 
 thrown aside to take their chances in the wilderness. 
 
 " An infant, not long born, was torn from its mother's breast, and 
 pitched screaming into the bush. She was dragged relentlessly 
 along. 
 
 " These things were done by the servants of the Arab owners, but 
 always by the Arab's order. One Arab was very cruel. We saw 
 his cruel nature in his face. 
 
 " The large and valuable tusks were not carried by the slaves, 
 
 * "2446 slaves, have reached Zanzibar since the 11th of October, date of 
 Sepoy's arrival ; it is nowthc 24th of October." — See Cover of Livingstone's Book, 
 t N.B.— Possibly one of some promise as a speculation.
 
 14 
 
 they were borne along by porters or servants of the Ai-abs ; the 
 small tusks, so light that they could easily be carried in one hand, 
 were carried by a few, not all, of the slaves." 
 
 " The N"aigTie of the Sepoys gave much the same account as 
 Reuten, but he declares to more numerous murders. In addition to 
 the club and the noose, he saw the dagger used to despatch victims 
 who either could not or would not move along with the caravan." 
 
 " These atrocities," says Mr. SeAvard, " occuiTed after the 
 gang began their march : but what of the crimes that waited 
 upon their original capture V 
 
 We have now accompanied the " merchandize " to the coast. 
 We may think the woi'st is over. Many gangs, no doubt, are 
 taken at once to Quiloa, and there sold ; but many also have to 
 await a favourable chance for shipment, so as to elude the 
 Zanzibar market, and be smuggled off at once to their desti- 
 nation ; and for these poor wretches are reserved the horrors of 
 the slave barracoon. Again we have an eye-witness to relate 
 to us details of the sickening scene. Monsieur Menon, of the 
 island of Eeunion, who was formerly engaged- in promoting 
 what he calls African emigration to the French colonies, de- 
 scribes the folloAving scene on the river Lindie, on the Eastern 
 coast : — 
 
 " An Arab chief told us he had, in the forest at some leagues' 
 distance, a depot of 800 men, whom he Avould bring to us the next 
 day. I asked the chief to conduct us to his depot, and at first he 
 stubbornly refused. But AA^hen I promised him a rifle musket, which 
 he eagerly desired to get, he consented and led us thither. After 
 thi'ee hours' march Ave arrived, but could see nothing. ' Where are 
 they lodged ?' we asked ; and he pointed to a palisade of bamboo, 
 open to the sky, where they Avere exposed, at the worst season of 
 the year, to a fiery sun, altei'nating with torrents of rain and some- 
 times of hail, Avithout any roof to cover t,hem. 
 
 " A man of tall stature, with his spear in his hand and a poignard 
 in his belt, pulled up three posts Avhich served for a gate to this 
 enclosure, and Ave entered. There they were, naked as on the day 
 of their bu'th ; some of them Avith a long foi'k attached to their neck 
 • — that is, a heaA^ bi'anch of a tree {une grossicre hrcmche cfarhre) of 
 fork-like shape — so arra.nged that it was impossible for them to step 
 forward, the heavy handle of the fork, Avhich they could not lift, 
 effectually preventing them from advancing, because of the pressure 
 on the throat ; others Avere chained together in parcels {paquets) of 
 twenty." The word Avhich I underline is a trivial one, but it exactly 
 expresses the idea. The keeper of this den utters a hoarse cry
 
 15 
 
 (ponssG nn rugisscment) ; it is the ordei* for tlie merchandize to 
 stand lip ; but many of them do not obey. What is the matter ? 
 Our interpreter, who has grone among the groups, Avilltell us: listen 
 to him. ' The chains are too short ; the dead and the dying prevent 
 the Hving from rising. Tlie dead can say nothing ; but what do the 
 dying say ? They say that they are dying — of hunger.' 
 
 " But let us leave the consideration of this trader's picture as a 
 whole ; and let ns look at some of the details. Who is this creature 
 who holds tightly in her arms a shapeless object covered with filthy 
 leaves ? On looking close, you see -that it is a woman, lying in the 
 mud, and holding to her dried up breast the child of which she has 
 just been delivered. And those little girls who totter as they strive 
 to rise, and who seem to ask for pity, on what are they leaning ? 
 On a dead body ! And this man who is working with his hands 
 a piece of mud, which he is continually placing on his eye, what 
 is the matter with him ? Our gaiide tells us, ' He is a trouble- 
 some fellow, who set a bad example by throwing himself at my feet 
 this morning, and saying with a loud voice, I am dying of hunger ; 
 and I gave him a blow which burst his eye ; he is henceforth good 
 for nothing ;' and he added with a sinister look, ' He wont be 
 hungry long.' " 
 
 To the question addressed to the Arab chief, why he dealt 
 thus with the men^ his reply was, " I do as my father did 
 before me.^^ 
 
 We pass on from the consideration of such revolting scenes, 
 to watch the future destiny of the unhappy slaves when brought 
 down to the coast. 
 
 The port of Quiloa, or Kilwa, which we have mentioned, lies 
 about 150 miles south of the island of Zanzibar, and is the 
 great mainland mart or emporium where thousands are exposed 
 for sale, and whence they are shipped for Zanzibar. The cost 
 of the slave purchased at Kilwa is about five dollars. Some 
 attempt is there made to register the number exported for 
 Zanzibar, by means of port clearances furnished by the autho- 
 rities to the slavers ; and it is from these registers that we are 
 enabled to calculate the yearly consumption of slaves. To this 
 part of our subject we shall presently return. 
 
 On arrival at Zanzibar, the majority of the slaves pass into 
 the slave market. Many are at once consigned to their Arab 
 purchasers, who have come down from Arabia with the northerly 
 monsoon, and have hired houses for the reception of their pur-
 
 16 
 
 chases. For every slave thus brought to Zanzibar, the Sultan 
 receives a royalty of two dollars, and it is therefore manifest 
 that for any assistance he may offer in the suppression of the 
 trade, he expects, as the lawyers- say, '^a valuable consider- 
 ation.'' •* 
 
 We again turn to the testimony of Dr. Livingstone; and at 
 this time, when there is so much uncertainty as to the safety of 
 our great traveller, the mind naturally recurs to the state of 
 suspense almost hopeless, save for the firm opinion expressed 
 by Sir R. Murchison, which followed on the report of his death 
 given by the Johanna men at Zanzibar. Great was the rejoicing 
 at the tidings of his safety, and hearty were the congratulations 
 offered to their president by the members of the Geographical 
 Society at the meeting at which Dr. Livingstone's letter an- 
 nouncing his safety was read. While all who spoke claimed 
 him as the great geographer, the African explorer, the un- 
 daunted traveller, there was one present who, having himself, 
 with Livino-stone, witnessed some of the hoirors of the East 
 African Slave-trade, endeavoured to impress upon the fashion- 
 able and learned assembly, that Livingstone had other objects 
 in view beside the mere solution of geographical problems — that 
 he was a true philanthropist, and that one of the causes nearest 
 to his heart was the suffering oppressed slave. The appeal 
 fell on ears geographical, geological, and polite, but unsym- 
 pathising, and it was evident that the harmony of the evening 
 was not to be marred by the mention of so uncomfoi'table and 
 unscientific a subject as the woes of the slave. However in- 
 teresting Africa's land and lakes and rivers may be to the 
 man of science, the condition of Africa's sons seems to appeal 
 only to a few unenlightened enthusiasts, whose hopes and 
 prayers and efforts form fit subject for scoff and sneer. But 
 the friend of the slave was the truest exponent of Livingstone's 
 character and views; and it is deeply interesting to see the 
 traveller, as we may picture him to ourselves, sitting down in 
 Lat. 11° 18' South, Long. 37° 10' East, to write a long report, 
 dated 11th June, 1866, to the Earl of Clarendon on the slave- 
 trade. Again, writing from Lake Nyassa in the following
 
 17 
 
 month of August, he returns to the subject, and makes sug- 
 gestions for the suppression of the trade ; and again, in a letter 
 dated 1st February, 1867, written from Bembo, about 500 miles 
 from the spot where he penned his first report, he devotes the 
 greater part of his space to the slave-trade, and concludes with 
 a regret that the geographical notes must be so scanty. 
 
 With this digression, the object of which was mainly to enhance 
 the value of Dr. Livingstone^s testimony on the subject, we 
 return to the island of Zanzibar and its slave mart, to which 
 point we have followed the slave. *'This/' says Dr. Livingstone, 
 (in the report dated 11th June, 1866, received on the 18th April, 
 1868), '^is now almost the only spot in the world where 100 to 
 300 slaves are daily exposed for sale in open market. This 
 disgraceful scene I several times personally witnessed, and the 
 purchasers were Arabs or Persians, whose dhows lay anchored 
 in the harbour, and these men were daily at their occupation 
 examining the teeth, gait, and limbs of the slaves, as openly as 
 horse dealers engage in their business in England.'^ 
 
 The thought may here occur to many of our readers, possibly 
 unfamiliar with the subject, " This may all be true, but is it 
 not a small insignificant trade you are describing — an annual 
 caravan of perhaps 300 or 400 slaves ?" A few words on the 
 present extent and results of the trade will, we regret to say, 
 reveal a very different state of things. We have stated that 
 Quiloa, or Kilwa, is the principal mainland export harbour, and 
 that here proper clearances are furnished to the slavers. In a 
 letter dated Zanzibar, 4th March, 1868, Consul Churchill states 
 that for the five years terminating September, 1867, there had 
 been exported from Quiloa 97,253 registered slaves. He states 
 also, that from 3000 to 4000 annually are smuggled from various 
 parts of the mainland ; so that we may swell the above total to 
 about 115,000 slaves, in five years, who have reached the coast, 
 and have been shipped for Zanzibar, Arabia, and other places. 
 Nor is this enormous total the measure of the misery and sin 
 which accompanies the trade. Let us again recur to the state- 
 ment of the Indian Sepoy. He says, " When we passed up 
 with Dr. Livingstone, the wayside stunk with corpses ; it was
 
 18 
 
 so when we passed down again ;'^ and out of the 300 slaves 
 
 who. started on that fearful march, 100 were left murdered on 
 
 the bloody track. Dr. Livingstone, in Chap. xix. of the 
 
 " Zambesi and its Tributaries/' says, — • 
 
 " Would that we could give a comprehensive • account of the 
 horrors of the Slave-trade, with au approximation to the number 
 of lives it yearly destroys : for we feel sure' that, were even half 
 the truth told and recognised, the feelings of men would be so 
 thoroughly roused, that this deviHsh traffic in human flesh would be 
 put down at all i-isks ; but neither we, nor any one else, have the 
 statistics necessaiy for a work of this kind. Let us state what we 
 know of one portion of Africa, and then every reader who believes 
 oar tale can apply the ratio of the knoT%Ti misery to find out the 
 unknown. Let it not be supposed for an instant, that those taken 
 out of the country represent all the victims ; they arc but a very 
 small section of the sufferers.* Besides those actually captured, 
 thousands are killed and die of their wounds and famine, driven 
 from their villages by the slave raid ; thousands in internecine war 
 waged for slaves with their own clansmen and neighbours, slain by 
 the lust of gain, which is stimulated by the slave pui-chasers. The 
 many skeletons we have seen amongst rocks and woods, by the 
 little pools, and along the paths of the wilderness, attest the awful 
 sacrifice of human Hfe which must be attributed,- dnectly or in- 
 directly, to this trade of hell. We would ask our countrymen to 
 believe us when we say, as we conscientiously can, that it is our 
 deliberate opinion, from what we know and have seen, that not 
 one-fifth of the victims of the slave-trade ever become slaves. 
 Takhag the Shire valley as an average, we should say, not even one- 
 tenth arrive at their destination." 
 
 Again, in his report to Lord Clarendon, dated the 20tli 
 
 August, 1866, he speaks of "a tract of very fine, well-watered, 
 
 but depopulated country, which took us eight days' hard 
 
 marching to cross": — 
 
 " It was about 100 miles broad, and so long, there was no possi- 
 bility of going round either end. It bore all the marks of having 
 been densely peopled at some former period. The ridges in which 
 the nartives plant grain and beans were everyrv'here visible ; and 
 from the number of calcined clay pipes used in furnaces, it is evi- 
 dent that they worked extensively in iron. The country was veiy 
 beautiful, mountainous, well-wooded, and watered. I counted m 
 one day's march fifteen running burns, though it was the dry sea- 
 son, and some were from four to ten yards broad. The sound of 
 gushing water, though not associated in our minds with Africa, 
 became quite familiar. It was too cold to bathe in with pleasure, 
 the elevation above the sea being between 3000 and 4000 feet.
 
 19 
 
 ".The process of depopulation to wliieh I have adverted goes on 
 annually. The coast Arabs from Kilwa come np with plenty of 
 ammunition and calico to the tribe called Waigau or Ajawa, and 
 say that the}'- want slaves. Marauding parties immediately start off 
 to the Manganja or Wanyassa villages, and, having plenty of pow- 
 der and guns, overpower and bring back the chief portion of the 
 inhabitants. Those who escape usually die of starvation. This 
 process is identical with that of which we f n-merly saw so much iu 
 the lands of the Portuguese in the Shire valley. I cannot writ^ 
 about it without a painful apprehension that to persons at a dis- 
 tance I must appear guilty of exaggeration. But I bag your Lord- 
 ship to remember, whenever my statements have been tested on tlie 
 spot, they have been found within, not boyoiid, the truth. Even the 
 grand Victoria sales were put down at less than half their size." 
 
 We have been told by General Rigby, formerly Consul at 
 Zanzibar^ that the old slaves still living there state that their 
 homes were in the country bordering on the sea ; while now 
 the slave hunter has to penetrate for 400 or 500 miles into the 
 interior^ through a country once populous and fertile, but now 
 a waste, ere he can secure the victims for his traffic. We leave 
 our readers to form their own conclusions as to the awful 
 sacrifice of human life caused by the Slave-trade on the East 
 Coast of Africa, and proceed to answer the question which must 
 naturally occur to every one, — " Has nothing been done by our 
 Government to put a stop to this miserable traffic ?" 
 
 Within the last ten years, more attention has been given by 
 our authoi'ities to the subject; and, in addition to the watch 
 maintained by our small squadron, various measures have been 
 urged upon the Sultan, the adoption of which, it was thought, 
 would materially aid the efforts of our cruisers. But it is a 
 fact^ that as yet uo palpable check has been placed on the trade. 
 The reason assigned by Di\ Livingstone for this failure is the 
 treaty protection afforded by us over the first and most diffi- 
 cult half of the sea voyage, under the policy to which expres- 
 sion was given by Lord Russell, in a despatch dated Lith 
 March, 1864. In that despatch he says, that Her Majesty's 
 Government do not claim the right to interfere in the status 
 of domestic slavery in Zanzibar, nor with the bond fide trans- 
 port of slaves from one portion of the Sultan's territory to 
 another, so long as this latter traffic shall not be made a cloak 
 
 B
 
 20 
 
 to cover the foreign Slave-trade. The hmits of this article 
 prevent our giving at length the arguments adduced by Dr. 
 Livingstone and Mr. Churchill for a reconsideration of the 
 policy of our Government in this matter,, — they are to be found 
 in the pamphlet published by the Church Missionary Society;* — 
 it will be suflBcient for our purpose to say, that they point out 
 the absurdity of supposing that an export trade of 20,000 
 slaves annually is needed to maintain the status of domestic 
 slavery in Zanzibar and the Sultan's African dominions ; and 
 concur in suggesting either that the Sultan be urged to sur- 
 render the protected trade entirely, or to consent to a gradual 
 reduction of the number of slaves to be brought into Zanzibar 
 to a minimum of 4000; at the same time granting our cruisers 
 such a right of search as would practically blockade the whole 
 of these waters, save a small limit over which the vessels of 
 Zanzibar, furnished with proper clearances from Kilvva, might 
 carry the slaves required for the island of Zanzibar. The Sul- 
 tan, personally, is supposed to be anxious to check and suppress 
 tSi'^^ tfade ; and, when urged to relinquish his treaty right of 
 carrying slaves, has expressed his willingness to do so, provided 
 our Government will, in return, refrain from compelling- him to 
 pay the subsidy which it was arranged should be paid to Muscat, 
 on the partition of the dominions of the old Imaum. Apart 
 from the question of the relinquishment of the treaty rights, 
 th6' Sultan prays to be released from this payment, giving as 
 his reason that it was contrary to all principles of right that 
 he should continue to pay a subsidy to a parricide and usurper ; 
 hi^ brother, with whom the compact was made, having been 
 foully murdered by his son, who usurped his thr6ne. So 
 strongly does the Sultan appear to have felt this, that he sent 
 an embassy to England to obtain from our Government a 
 release from the hateful subsidy. The presence of these envoys 
 afforded an opportunity, which was seized by the Church 
 Missionary kiociety, of approaching the Government; and as 
 the matter was within the purview of the India Office, a memo- 
 
 * iScc Ajipemlix, Nule 11, p. '60.
 
 21 
 
 rial was pi'esented to His Grace the Duke of Argyll, setting 
 forth shortly some of the main fiicts connected with the trade, 
 and urging that the presence of the envoys afforded an oppor- 
 tunity, that should not be lost, of obtaining from the Sultan a 
 virtual abandonment of the protected slave-trade. The depu- 
 tation was kindly received by His Gnice, who, from his answer, 
 seemed to think that the condition attached bj^ the Sultan to 
 the concession, viz., the release from the subsidy, so com- 
 plicated the question, as to render it impossible to answer the 
 memorial of the Society until the Indian Government had been 
 consulted. He expressed a hope that, in the meantime, the 
 arrangements which were pending between the Admiralty and 
 the India Office would place the East African Squadron on a 
 more efficient footing. 
 
 We now come to the last division of our subject, the measures 
 by which the Society hope, in. some degree, to alleviate the 
 curse brought on East xifrica, atid to turn that curse into a 
 blessiug. The annual returns from the East Coast Squadron 
 show that they capture every year a varying number of slaves 
 ranging from 1000 to 1800. These poor creatures are liberated 
 at the nearest British port to the point of capture ; and accord- 
 ingly cargoes of these poor creatures, many of them children, 
 are landed at Aden, Bombay, Mauritius, and the Seychelles^ 
 Islands. The pamphlet from which we have so largely drawn, 
 in order to point its argument in favour of a Christian settle- 
 ment on or near the East Coast of Africa, to which these libe- 
 rated slaves may be brought, sketches shortly the history of 
 the Missions of the Society to West Africa, showing how the 
 settlement of Sierra Leone^ formerly only the depot for the 
 hberated slave, has become a Christian capital, and the centre 
 of light for that part of Africa; and proceeds : — 
 
 " The practical conclusion to which we now come is, that the 
 efforts of our own Government to suppress the East Coast Slave 
 Trade afford an opportunity for the evangelization of portions of the 
 East Coast tribes similar to that so successfully embraced by the 
 Church Missionary and other Missionary Societies at Sierra Leone ; 
 and with hopes of similar success, provided only that a Sierra Leone 
 can be formed on the East Coast. This is a jnost important point, 
 
 b2
 
 22 
 
 for witliotit some sncli central depot bo combined missionary effort 
 can be made." 
 
 After balancing the advantages and difficulties presented by 
 sucli localities as Zanzibar, Mauritius, Mombas, Aden, and the 
 Seychelles Islands, the latter are pronounced most suited to 
 the scheme proposed by the Society; which is to commence a 
 Mission, principally of an educational character, among the 
 libei'ated slaves, now or hereafter to be brought to those 
 islands, taking charge of the children, supporting and edu- 
 cating them, as is still done, with the help of the Government, 
 in the Liberated African Schools at Sierra Leone, at the Powder 
 Mills Asylum in Mauritius, and at the African Institution at 
 Nassick in Bombay. From letters recently received by the So- 
 ciety from their missionaries at Mauritius, and from the Bishop 
 of Mauritius, we learn that there are now at the Island of Mabe, 
 one of the Seychelles group, no less than 2000 liberated slaves, 
 and that there are in the market several small estates suitable 
 for the establishment of a training school, which may become 
 self-supporting, and where the lads may be instructed in the 
 trades and handicrafts so necessary to the development of 
 civilized life. For further details of the scheme, we again refer 
 our readers to the pamphlet.* 
 
 Thus, practically, the Church Missionary Society seems called 
 upon, to undertake a new Mission, and already it has responded 
 to the call by transferring to the Seychelles from the Kisulidiui 
 "Station of the Society on the East African coast, one of its 
 missionaries whose ill-health had rendered a change necessary. 
 While we would congratulate the Committee on its ready 
 'jpesponse to the call "" Come over and help us,"*^ and concur 
 most heartily in the scheme they have in view, we hope they 
 will not relax their efforts to obtain from the Government such 
 measures as shall lead to a complete abandonment of'this curse 
 of East Africa, and pave the way for the restoration, to their 
 own wasted and depopulated though fertile country, of a people 
 who, under the teaching of the Society, will be not only educated 
 in agriculture and the useful arts, but " instructed unto the 
 
 * See Appendix, Note C, p. 34.
 
 23 
 
 kingdom of heaven." But to the accomplishment of this end 
 many will be the obstacles; nor must the Society falter or 
 swerve from its path at the opposition they must enc'ounter. 
 We beg them to remember the inheritance which has descended 
 to them from the men who fought and won the old fight. And 
 here the words of Sir James Stephen seem to us so encou- 
 raging, and conceived in a spirit so appropriate to that in 
 which the present contest, inferior though it may be in magni- 
 tude to the battle of the old slave trade, should be commenced 
 and maintained, that we cannot do better than close this article 
 by quoting them at length : — 
 
 " In later days agitation for the accomplishment of groat political 
 objects has taken a place among social arts. But sixty years since, 
 it was among the inventions slumberiug in the womb of time, 
 taught by no professors, and illustrated by no examples. We have 
 lived to see many of the most ancient and solid edifices, erected by 
 the wisdom of our ancestors, totter at the blast of leagues, asso- 
 ciations, speeches, reports, and editorial articles, like the towers of 
 Jei'icho falling before the rams' horns of Joshua. But when Mr. 
 Wilberforco and his friends met to deliberate on their enterprise, 
 the contrast between the magnitude of their design and the poverty 
 of their resources demanded a faith scarcely inferior to that which 
 encouraged the invaders of Palestine to assault with the sound of 
 then' trumpets the towers built up by the children of Anak to the 
 heavens. Truth, indeed, and justice were on their side ; and in the 
 flower of his youth, his eloquence, and his fame, Mr. Pitt had given 
 the bright augury of his adhesion to their cause. But, after twenty 
 years of ceaseless controversy had x'olled away, the most sanguine 
 of them was constrained to ' stand in awe of the powers of falsehood ' 
 and of commercial cupidity, and to acknowledge that, in effecting 
 so great a deliverance, God would not employ the rulers nor the 
 mere rhetoricians of the world, but would use, as His instruments, 
 His own devoted servants — men able to touch in the bosoms of 
 others the sacred springs of action which were working in their 
 own."
 
 24 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 Extract from Pamphlet on the Slave Trade of East Africa, 
 puhlished by the Church Missionary Society in 1868. 
 
 ELwiNG thus examined the present condition and circumstances of 
 the East Coast Slave-trade, and the reasons assignable for its exis- 
 tence, let us proceed to the consideration of some means which may 
 be adopted in mitigation of the evils brought on Africa by that 
 trade, or, as suggested by the Bishop of Mauritius, the employment 
 by Christian charity of the same means on the East Coast as have 
 been so successful ou the West, iu bringing good out of the evil of 
 slavery. The conditions of the inland slave trade on the East Coast 
 are now precisely the same as those of the old West Coast traffic once 
 Avei-e ; and although the same responsibility and condemnation may 
 not rest on England with regard to the East as pressed so heavily on 
 her with regard to the West, yet the call upon Christian England's 
 sympathy and help is as urgent and pressmg from the East as it was 
 from the West Coast of that unhappy land. K the Christianity of 
 England cannot at once put a stop, either by treaty or armed force, 
 to the infamous traffic, it can yet use for the East Coast the same 
 means as have been so signally blessed for the elevation of the 
 African race at Sien-a Leone and other West Coast stations. The 
 history of Mission work at Sierra Leone is the lesson whose results 
 must guide any similar attempt on the East Coast. As an ab- 
 stract proposition, it cannot be denied that the diffusion of light 
 and knowledge, and instruction in agriciilture, and enterprise and 
 commerce, will put an end to the traffic in slaves anywhere ; but the 
 question to be considered is, how to begin. Notwithstanding the 
 general familiarity with the history of the colony of Sierra Leone, 
 it may. be ilseful to embody in this paper a few of the salient points 
 of that history, whose conditions hud an analogy in the past and 
 present circumstances of the East Coast. And, first, we tind a com- 
 mon point in the fact that discovery and travel were closely followed 
 by missionary enterprise. No sooner was the West Coast at all 
 opened up, than missionaiy enterprise was attracted to the Guinea 
 Coast and the neighbourhood of Sieri-a Leone, and between 1768 and 
 17yH fifteen Missionaries were sent out, of whom but one returned 
 home. In 1804 the first Missionaries of the Church ]\Iissionary
 
 20 
 
 Society sailed for the Rio Pongas, and subsequently to the Bulloms, 
 a tribe near Sierra Leone. Eleven years passed away, and seven of 
 the ten Missionaries lay in their early graves, and but slight en- 
 couragements were manifested. Churches, schools, and mission stores 
 were destroyed by fire, and our Missionaries were at last compelled 
 to take refuge in Sierra Leone. If any lesson had been learned, it 
 was this, that European Missionaries could not, save under excep- 
 tionally favourable conditions, endure the pestilential climate of that 
 West Coast ; and that, instead of wasting their energies upon compa- 
 ratively few and savage tribes along the coast, it would be better and 
 wiser to take advantage of the means almost ready to hand for 
 meeting the negro under more tavourabie conditions, and from among 
 them to raise up a native agency. The records of the East Coast teach 
 the same lesson. There, too, have Missionaries been sent forth in the 
 track of travel, but without results. The history of the Central 
 Africa Mission is bvit a record of death succeeding death ; and even 
 our own Mission at Kisuludini, with the devoted Rebraann labouring 
 at his post, what has it effected ? How many can we point to as 
 brought even within the civilizing effects of the Gospel ? If we find 
 the parallel to the condition of missionary effoi't piior to 181(3 on the 
 West Coast, in the present condition and results of similar efforts on 
 the East Coast, let us continue the parallel, with God's help, and re- 
 produce on the East, by the use of similar means, those happy results 
 which are manifest on the West Coast. On the West Coast, the Mis- 
 sionaries havingfailed to makeany marked impi'ession by their labours, 
 had been driven into Sierra Leone, at that time a colony, which, from 
 being at first a settlement for freed negToes, in 1808 became a depot 
 for negroes released by British cruisers, and had, in 1811, a rapidly 
 increasing population of 4500, of whom 2500 were liberated slaves. 
 
 In 1816 the Rev. E. Bickersteth visited Africa; and, having spent 
 many months upon the coast, returned to consult with the Committee 
 of the Church Missionary Society on the measures to be adopted. 
 The result was, that a suggestion of Sir C. M'Carthy, Governor of 
 Sierra Leone in 1814, was acted upon. Instead of wasting their 
 energies upon a few inconsiderable tribes of savages along the coast, 
 they resolved to concentrate them upon the colony itself, with its 
 increasing population of liberated negroes, g'athered from upwards of 
 100 different tribes in various parts of Africa, speaking widely-dis- 
 tinct languages. Were Sierra Leone to become a centre of light, 
 and these representatives of so many nations to receive the Gospel, 
 hoAV widely would it be diffused over the vast continent when they 
 should return to their several homes, so many Christian evangelists, 
 speaking in 100 different tongues the wonderful works of God. To 
 avail themselves of the wide means of usefalness thus providentially 
 prepared for them (through the very Slave Trade which seemed an 
 unmitigated curse), they felt to be a bounden duty. 
 
 Our Missionaries were accordingly located in Sierra Leone in 1816. 
 According to a plan formed by Governor M'Carthy, the "whole colony
 
 26 
 
 was divided into parishes, and Missionaries provided for each parish 
 in the colony. A Christian Institution on Leicester Mountain was 
 maintained as an industrial school for both sexes, and schoolmasters 
 and catechists scattered over the villages. p]very effort was made to 
 rescue the poor degraded savages, transferred to theii* care from the 
 holds of slave ships, from the deep bondage of ignorance and sin in 
 which they were sunk. 
 
 Without dwelling upon further details of the history of Sierra 
 Leone under Missionary efforts, we may point to its present condition 
 as a proof, that not only had the anticipation of the Christian men 
 who first resolved on applying the Gospel as the cure for all Africa's 
 woes been realized by the event, but their wisdom in selecting the 
 depot at Sierra Leone for the scene of their efforts fully proved ; for 
 not only has the Slave Trade, formerly so great a curse to Africa, been 
 ovemiled to become eventually a blessing, but it has been the means 
 of furnishing that country with a supply of native evangelists, who, 
 but for this, might never have existed. It has supplied Africa with 
 Christians of various nations, who could not but for this have been 
 gathered together into one place, and received the truth at one time. 
 
 The labourers of the Society were providentially directed to 
 Sierra Leone. Had they not been frusti-ated in their efforts, and almost 
 driven into the colony, they might to this day have been labouring 
 among a few obscure tribes, in the extreme West Coast, without 
 any probability of influencing the smTounding country, still less of 
 penetrating into the heart of the continent. The failui'e of their 
 Missions amon^ the Susus and Bulloms, and their concentration of 
 effort at Sierra Leone, Avas most mercifully and wisely ordered for 
 the benefit of the whole of Africa. Had they been settled in some 
 populous town in the very centre of the continent, their vantage 
 ground for future operations would not have been a thousandth part 
 Fo effective, as in this corner of the Western shore. From this out- 
 lying colony the sound of England's name and England's religion 
 has already gone forth far into the interior of the continent. Dr. 
 Livingstone records, that amongst some even of the newly discovered 
 countries on the Zambesi, England was favourably knoAvn as the 
 . friend of the black races. 
 
 The most interesting features of this Church's history of late years 
 'ai!'^ the rise of a N^ative Pastorate, and the development of the prin- 
 ciple of self-support in the Native Church. Since the ordination of 
 the first African clergyman connected with the Mission, the Rev. 
 Samuel Crowther, the niimber of Native Ministers has steadily 
 increased. They are now seventeen in number, and in time will 
 doubtless increase' to the full extent of the wants of the Native 
 Church. 
 
 As the Mission Churches increased in efficiency, their thoughts 
 turned to Missions in the regions beyond. The study of the Native 
 languages was encouraged. In 1840, a Mission was commenced 
 amongst the Timnchs, to the North-East of the colony. In 1845, a
 
 27 
 
 Mission was sent to the Yoruba country. A chief town, Abeokuta, 
 was occupied, and the Gospel has since i-adiated from thence to 
 many of the large towns in the sui^rounding district. In 18-57, a 
 Niger Mission was established, conducted wholly by native African 
 clergymen and laymen, themselves the fvuit of the Missionary la- 
 bours of a past generation ; and it is now under the care of Bishop 
 Crowther, the first Native Bishop of the West African Church, a 
 Missionary of no ordinary ability, a living wonder to those who 
 once so vauntingly denied the capability of elevating the native 
 African races, and would fain have extinguished the zeal of their 
 Christian friends in England. 
 
 The practical conclusion to which we now come is, that the efforts 
 of our own Grovernment to suppress the East Coast Slave Trade 
 aiford an opportunity for the evangelization of portions of the East 
 Coast tribes, similar to that so successfully embraced by the Church 
 Missionary and other Missionary Societies at Sierra Leone, and with 
 hopes of similar success, provided only that a Sierra Leone can be 
 reproduced upon the East Coast. This is a most important point, 
 for without some such depot, possessing the advantages of Sierra 
 Leone, no combined ]\Iissiouary effort can be made. Although our 
 proper labours as a Missionary Society would be sufficiently em- 
 ployed in teaching and preaching to the heathen negro wherever we 
 may find him, yet the work should in this case, if possible, be initi- 
 ated under conditions which point to the destruction of Slave Trade 
 as the result of their own development. Dr. Livingstone observes 
 the moral degradation which an indulgence in the traffic produces 
 in those tribes who collect slaves for the dealers : and, on the other 
 hand, we may lay it down as a truth, that the spread among or in 
 the vicinity of those ti-ibes of an intelligent iudustiy, and an ac- 
 quaintance with the higher standards of civilization, must aid in 
 repressing their tendency to engage in this tiaffic. 
 
 Now, to biing these things to bear, what so effectual as the pre- 
 sence among those tiibes of a native agency, instructed not only as 
 to the principles of civilization, but teachers of Gospel truth. It 
 therefore seems a condition necessary to the success of the suggested 
 scheme, that the spot chosen for its commencement should be 
 sufficiently near the scenes of the inland Slave Trade to permit an 
 influence for good to radiate among the slave-collecting' tribes, and 
 at the same time command a sufficient extent of teri-itory to utilize 
 to the utmost the labour stored up in such a settlement. A settle- 
 ment so placed might, in the course of a few years, become a self- 
 supporting organized community, such as may be found at the 
 Church Missionary station at Metlahkatlah, on the shores of the 
 North Pacific Ocean, where the Red Indians of North-west America 
 have been taught the advantages of union for the purpose of self- 
 government and the remunerativeness of combined labour ; and the 
 whole fabric, based on the teaching of the Gospel, seems now to be 
 crowned with the best blessings of the Gospel of Peace. These
 
 28 
 
 principles seem in theory to govern the selection of any jjlace where 
 the experiment could be tried ; but there are other practical facts 
 which must bear their full share in the matter. In the first place, 
 such a settlement must be protected until able to protect itself ; and 
 what power can grant this protection ? Assuming for the moment 
 that, upon the principle of going as near the root of the evil as 
 possible, the Island of Zanzibar itself, or the adjoining mainland, 
 were selected, what protection could such a settlement expect from 
 the government of Zanzibar ? Willing as the present ruler may be, 
 c^n he control his people ? A nation of Mohammedans, who regard 
 slavery as lawful and expressly sanctioned, could they be expected 
 willingly to stand by and see free labour existmg as a perpetual 
 condemnation of their domestic slavery ? Or, supposing some place 
 selected further removed from the Island of Zanzibar, the thought 
 instantly occurs. Who is to protect such a settlement from the 
 slave- raids of the Arab dealers ? It is to be feared that any such 
 settlement might fall an easy prey to the force they might bring on 
 such an expedition. 
 
 It seems impossible to hope for a secure shelter on any but British 
 territory for a settlement of free negrees ; and we question the pro- 
 bability of our Government, even were it considered advisable, being 
 able to obtain any teiTitoiy where the experiment could be tried. 
 Thus, then, we appear to be di-iven from Zanzibar and the mainland, 
 and compelled to abandon our governing principles for the shelter 
 of the British flag. There now only remain islands removed to 
 sbme distance from the coast, where, though abandoning the hope 
 of organizing a community whose example should teach the sur- 
 rounding tribes the more desirable results of civilization, yet never- 
 theless the Church Missionary Society would have the opportunity 
 of training up a native agency, both pastoral and lay, who might, 
 among theu' own tribes, form the nuclei of many such communities. 
 Of these islands may be named, as British territory, Mauritius and 
 the Seychelles ; the latter, lying in 3° South Latitude and 130° West 
 Longitude, form a cluster of five or six small islands, which ai'e 
 British territory, and are governed by Mauritius. To these islands 
 many liberated slaves are now taken by our cruisers ; and unfor- 
 tunately, there being no sufficient supervision or control, much im- 
 morality has been the result, and the Government have been urged 
 not to libeiute any more negToes there. The Bishop of Mauritius 
 is, however, very strongly in favour of the Seychelles being selected. 
 There remains the Island of ^Mauritius, which, however, is too far 
 removed from the cruising grounds of our East Coast squadi'on to 
 be available as the regular depot. J^o doubt many objections may 
 be urged against the Seychelles, but others equally strong may be 
 urged against any other place ; and therefore, while the trade lasts, 
 and our cruisers capture slarers and liberate slaves, the Seychelles 
 Islands seem to be the most suitable depot ; and after a careful con- 
 sideration of the subject, it does seem that no place would be so 
 suitable for commencing the experiment.
 
 29 
 
 But while tlie necessity of tlius facing the evil seems laid upon 
 the Church Missionary Society, and a new field of labour opens up, 
 calling for fresh exertion, for a new ]\Iission, we are compelled to 
 appeal to the friends of Missions in our Church for the funds ne- 
 cessary to the proper suppoi't of our vast existing agency. Let the 
 answer be. How can the Church Missionary Society be silent to the 
 cry from East Africa ? If this cry has reached us, dare we stop 
 our ears to it ? Shall we cease to go forward ? Shall we not rather, 
 in the assurance that if God has called us to the work He will find 
 the instruments and the means ready to hand, resolve to undertake 
 a new Mission to the Eastern tribes of that Africa whose Westera 
 shores have witnessed the rise and establishment of a Church, many 
 of whose members, once ransomed from the grasp of the slaver, are 
 now free men in Christ Jesus. 
 
 We now come to the final division of our subject — the consideration 
 of the vdtimate remedy and final suppression of the Trade ; and here 
 we can do no more than ui'ge measures, the adoption of which will, 
 in the opinion of the best authorities, first suppress, and finally ex- 
 tinguish, the foreigTi Slave Trade. It is easily gathei-ed from the 
 official documents we have quoted, that the protected Slave Trade is 
 carried on to a much greater extent than the status of domestic 
 slavery in the Sultan's own dominions requires. And again, we 
 have the statement of Mr. Frei"e, that if the Sultan would limit the 
 importation of slaves to the actual requirements of his three islands, 
 Zanzibar, Pemba, and Monfia, the Northern trade would be finally 
 stopped. It would seem, perhaps, an extreme measure, but yet a 
 safe one, if this concession were granted, to name certain ports 
 between which alone the trade Avould be protected ; as, for instance, 
 within Zanzibar territory, Quiloa on the mainland, and Zanzibar, 
 Pemba, and Monfia ; and to grant to our cruisers the right of search 
 over any vessels found outside the limits necessary for this passage. 
 This, combined with a proper system of passes issued at Quiloa, 
 would very soon put down the foreign Slave Trade, if a squadron 
 sufficient to maintain an effective blockade were provided. 
 
 That some such, or even a stronger, measure was contem- 
 plated by our Government, appears from the despatch of Lord 
 Russell, dated 14th March 1864. He says that it is the deter- 
 mination of Her Majesty's Government to suppress the foreign 
 Slave Trade, and that, with this object. Colonel Pelly had been in- 
 structed to propose to the Sultan a Treaty engagement, to be in- 
 corporated with the existing Treaty, which should altogether pro- 
 hibit the transport of slaves coastwise from one portion of his 
 dominions to another. The despatch, however, instructs Colonel 
 Playfair (Colonel Polly's successor) not to insist upon this new 
 engagement if the measures adopted by the Sultan against the 
 Northern Slave-trade were carried out in good faith, but adds, " You 
 will not lose sight of this subject ; and you will, should an opportunity 
 offer, endeavour to induce His Highness to embody this concession in
 
 30 
 
 the existing Treaty for tlie suppression of Slave Ti-ade." We have seen 
 that no measure hitherto adopted has succeeded in even checking 
 the East Coast Slave Trade, and we think that the time has come 
 when our Government should bestir itself in this matter, and call 
 upon the Sultan of Zanzibar to enter into such other engagements 
 as may be deemed requisite for the complete suppression of the 
 traffic, a result which the experience of twenty-two years has shown 
 the existing Treaty to be utterly inadequate to effect. 
 
 K"OTE B. 
 
 Extracts from Dr. Lii'ingstone\'i Eeport on the East African Slave 
 Trade, dated East Africa, Lat. 11° 18' S., Long. 37° 10' E., 
 June 11, 1866. 
 
 " T devoted part of the time of my detention at the Island of 
 Zanzibar to a careful and earnest study of our political relations 
 with the Sultan, and to a minute investigation of the causes which 
 have prevented those parts of Eastern Africa, subject to Arab 
 influences, from reaping the same advantages, by the policy of Her 
 Majesty's Gqvemment against the Slave Trade, Avhich have been 
 realized in large portions of Western Africa inhabited by less pro- 
 m.ising races of people. 
 
 " The reasons assigned for the continuance of this very unsatisfac- 
 tory state of affairs derive their force and speciousness partly from 
 political considerations, and partly fi'om forebodings of the evils in- 
 volved in change, though that change might be for the better. A 
 bright hope too, that, by the slow and steady influence of trade and 
 imported civilization, the Arabs may be led ta change their ways, 
 gilds the whole subject. 
 
 " Among the poHtical considerations are specified, that these 
 Northei'u Arab slave-traders are lawless pirates, whom the Sultan, 
 however willing, cannot coerce. His power in the Island of Zanzibar 
 is very limited, and on the coast line of the adjacent continent he 
 possesses but a mere shadow of power. In fact, to the Ai'abs he 
 represents that leader only who first guided them down the East 
 coast for conquest. They acknowledge him as their Chief (Syed), 
 but not their Sultan; and since the present occupant of the Chieftain- 
 ship has been separated from those possessions in Asia Avhence his 
 father, the old Imaum of Muscat, drew all his military power, Syed 
 Majid, the son, can muster no force to control either the Zanzibar or 
 the Northern Arab slave-traders. His utter piAvei'lessness to with-
 
 31 
 
 stand the slaving propensities of the pu'ates and kidnappers, who 
 annually infest his island and seas, has been thus forcibly, though 
 hypothetically expressed. Should the Sultan attempt the abolition 
 of the Slave Trade in his dominions, so ultimately linked is that traffic 
 with the whole system of slavery in which he is placed, the pro- 
 clamation would ensure a revolution, his own expiilsion, or even 
 death. 
 
 " In judging of the weight due to these and similar assertions, it 
 must be never left out of view for a moment that Syed Majid is the 
 
 creature of English power alone He resembles one of 
 
 the Indian protected princes, but destitute of any organized force by 
 land or sea, which his political Resident might wield for his or his 
 subjects' benefit. 
 
 " Our treaty with the Sultan's father furnislies a more important 
 consideration than anything else. This treaty allowed the Slave 
 Trade to be carried on within certain specified limits, and for the 
 avowed object of permitting supplies of labour to be carried to the 
 more southerly territories of the late Imaum. This concession of a 
 limited use of the Slave Trade was no doubt made in the hope that, 
 at some no very distant date the way would be paved for the com- 
 plete cessation of the trade in slaves. It certainly never was con- 
 templated by either of the contracting parties that a special stipula- 
 tion for a small and well-defined remission of the traffic should be 
 made, as now it is made, the means of erecting the Island of Zanzibar 
 into a great slave emporium, and extending the ocean Slave Trade to 
 th.e Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Still, though our object in the Treaty 
 has been perverted, and we have been practically over-reached, Treaty 
 obligations ouhgt to be respected till that alteration is made in the 
 stipulations which the present aspect of the ocean Slave Trade 
 throuo-hout the world demands. 
 
 Extract from Letter of Dr. TAvmrj stone to the Earl of Clare ud on, 
 dated Lahe Nijassa, August 20, 1866. 
 
 " I would earnestly recommend that His Highness the Sultan be 
 pressed so to alter the Treaty with his late father as to cancel our 
 permission of a limited Slave Trade. 
 
 " This alteration cannot foirly be called injurious to the status 
 of slavery in the Island of Zanzibar. It is a sheer absurdity to 
 imag-ine that the reigning family imports 3000 slaves annually for 
 domestic purposes, and that the inhabitants generally import 12,000 
 for similar purposes. They are all intended for exportation to the 
 North ; and the coast towns, Kilwa, Morabas, &c., receive far more 
 slaves from the interior than they ever make use of for cultivation. 
 
 " To render the measure I have ventured to propose efficient, an
 
 32 
 
 English man-of-war sliould always be present in the harbour • of 
 Zanzibar during the visits of the Northern Arabs ; and, during the 
 months when the dhows are known to run slaves, the force usually- 
 stationed on their route should have a depot in their vicinity, so 
 that after a single capture the ci'uiser may not, as usually happens, 
 be obliged to retire and land the slaves at the most important crisis 
 for action." 
 
 Mr. Consul Churckill to the Chief Secretary to Government, 
 Bombay ; dated Zanzibar, August 14, 1867. 
 
 After refeii'ing to Earl Russell's instructions to Colonel Playfair 
 in 1864, not to lose sight of the importance of the Sultan entering 
 into a Treaty engagement to prohibit the transport of slaves coastwise 
 from one portion of his dominions to another, and also to the failure 
 of the Sultan's prohibition of the transport of slaves between 1st 
 January and 30th April, he says : — 
 
 " It became evident that the time had come for Earl Russell's in- 
 structions to be pressed on the Sultan for liis acceptance. 
 
 " In my conversations with the Sultan, and with his Chief Secre- 
 tary, Sheikh Suliman, I made a point of making His Highness un- 
 derstand the necessity of proving to Her Majesty's Government his 
 earnestness to co-ojierate with us ; and I did not fail to make him 
 see that, sooner or later, the transport of slaves coastwise would have 
 to be prohibited. 
 
 " I told His Highness that Her Majesty's Government did not 
 claim the right of interference in the status of domestic slavery in 
 his dominions ; but that if domestic slavery was his sole object, I looked 
 upon the liberty his subjects enjoyed, in virtue of Treaty, of carrying 
 slaves from one end of his dominions on the coast to the other, as 
 totally incommensurate with the object in view, inasmuch as his 
 subjects could procure enough slaves from the coast opposite 
 Zanzibar to supply the agricultural wants of the island; and there- 
 fore, if he was sincere in his assurances of friendship and fellow- 
 feeling with us, he could not refuse to reduce the limits within which 
 the transport of slaves for domestic purposes Avould be permitted ; 
 and I pointed out to him on the map Rasydege, in South Latitude 7^, 
 as the Southern, and Mombas, in Latitude 4^^, as the Northern limit, 
 between which points he might have the privilege of transporting 
 slaves without interference, provided he agreed to abandon the rest. 
 
 " His Highness did not appear surprised at the magnitude of my 
 demand, comprising as it does thi'ee-fifths of his seaboard. He ap- 
 peared to have been quite prepared for this demand ; and he promised 
 to assemble his Court Council, and bring his reply in person to Her 
 Majesty's Consulate in two days. 
 
 " For precision's sake I have caused the Sultan's declaration to be
 
 33 
 
 put down in writing ; and I have the honour to transmit it herewith 
 enclosed, in translation, for the information of the Right Honourable 
 the Governor in Council. 
 
 " The importance of the Sultan's concession His Excellency will 
 readily appreciate when I repeat Captain Pasley's words, that it is 
 the most complete check to the Slave Trade that will have been 
 effected since Her Majesty's Government began to suppress it." 
 
 The Sultan of Zanzibar to Mr. Churchill. 
 {Translation). 
 
 " In the name of God. You have asked of us, in the name of Her 
 Majesty's Government, the reduction of the limits allowed us by the 
 Treaty between the British Government and our father the Imaum, 
 within which we are at liberty to carry slaves, so that the limits 
 within which we shall be enabled to transport slaves in future by sea 
 shall be comprised between Cape Dege and Matepa, including the 
 islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, and Chewley, with permission to Her 
 Majesty's cruisers to seize any vessel on the shores of Pemba that 
 may be found there without a pass or colours, and that may have 
 slaves on board without permission, and having seized it, to bring it 
 to you at Zanzibar for adjvidication ; and provided also that, Chewley 
 being beyond Cape Dege, special vessels be appointed to carry thereto 
 the slaves the island may requii-e for itself, with this understanding 
 that Her Majesty's cruisers shall cease to molest or interfere with the 
 shipping of our subjects within the said limits. 
 
 " We have, in consequence, assembled the members of our Council, 
 and have acquainted them with your request. They were all of one 
 accord in saying- that your proposition would prove very detrimental 
 to our Government in many ways which it would be too long to 
 enumerate ; but that, nevertheless, it was incumbent on us to satisfy 
 the British Government. 
 
 " But we also have something to ask of the British Government 
 which will cost them nothing to grant us ; and that is, we be allowed 
 to avenge on Salun the murder of our brother : and if this be found 
 difficult to allow, we beg of the Government that we be no longer 
 asked to pay the subsidy, or any of the claims forwarded to us, for 
 our own claims in Oman are greater than those put forward against 
 lis in Zanzibar. Be this known. Written on the l^th Rebbi ussame, 
 128-i. 
 
 " Prom your friend Majid-bin-Said. In the Sultan's own hand- 
 writing. 
 
 " If the exalted Government accepts the wishes you have expressed 
 to us, and those we have ourselves expressed, and they be pleased 
 with them, we will either add them to the original Treaty, or sign a 
 new one, just as they please."
 
 34 
 
 Note C. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Comynittee of the Churclt Mis- 
 sionary Society, dated March 3, 1858. 
 
 " The stil3Ject of measuves to be adopted for tlie protection and 
 education of the slaves liberated by Britisli cruisers was considered, 
 and it appeared that at present they are very insufficient, and it is 
 desirable that the Society should undertake an Educational Mission 
 at some place on or near the East Coast of Africa. That, under the 
 political circumstances of East Afi-ica, and looking to the support 
 of the Government, any scheme for this purpose must be carried 
 out on British territory, and that no place was so suitable as the 
 Seychelles Islands. That there the Society might have a Central 
 Educational Establishment which might, to a certain extent, be self- 
 supporting, and be in connexion with the depots to be formed by the 
 Government at Zanzibar and Aden." 
 
 At the commencement of the year the Committee requested the 
 Rev. Stephen Hobbs, the Secretary of the Mauritius Mission, to 
 proceed to the Seychelles Islands, to make enquiries as to the 
 suitability of the place for the establishment of an institution for the 
 liberated Africans, and to report thereon. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs, in conversation with Mr. Ward, the Civil Com- 
 missioner, explained to him the system pursued by the Society in 
 Sierra Leune, but gave him to understand that the Society would 
 attempt nothing nnjre than a school at present, at the Seychelles, 
 leaving operations of a more complex nature until circumstances led 
 naturally to their adoyjtion. Mr. Ward said he could safely promise 
 to send all little children who may arrive to such a school, as they 
 are distributed without charge to all who apply for them and 
 promise to take care of them. 
 
 Both Mr. Ward and Dr. Brooks expressed an opinion that the 
 Society would do wisely in adopting Mahe as the basis of their 
 work, rather than a station on the East Coast of Africa, both on 
 account of the advantage of getting trained teachers speaking many 
 dialects instead of only one ; and also, more especially, because of the 
 perfect salubrity of these islands. Sickness and mortality are there 
 at a minimum i-ate, so that a Missionary, of sound health at first, 
 might reasonably hope to continue bis labours for yeai-s without 
 interruption. Dr. Brooks is the only medical practitioner in the 
 Dependency, and no other seems to be required. The temperature 
 at the beginning of the cool season is very agreeable. At other 
 times the heat is severe, but all seasons are considered to be equally 
 healthy. Sufferers from fever going there from Mauritius for change 
 are, almost without exception, speedily and completely cured. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs rejoorts, that a Mission here, judiciously conducted,
 
 6i) 
 
 would be veiy inexpensive. The expense of boarding for seho.(jl 
 children might be made very light from the beginning, and after 
 a short time reduced almost to nil. There is no" necessity to give 
 rice, which the Indians in Mauritius require, and which is a very 
 heavy expense, being all imported. At Mahe, the rations served 
 out to labourers consist almost exclusively of maize, manioc, and 
 other pi'oductions of the country, which can be produced in any quan- 
 tity, if sufficient land be secured, and a few adult labourers kept for 
 its cultivation. The school children should be trained from the tii-st 
 to assist, and soon might do all the work that has to be done. . 
 
 Letter- of 8ivinhurne Ward, Esq., H. M. Commissioner for the 
 Seychelles Islands, to Rev. S. Hohhs, dated Government House, 
 Seychelles, May 22, 1869. 
 
 " Sir, — According to your desii^e, I beg to offer the follotving re- 
 marks upon Slave Trade upon the East African Coast, an^^its con- 
 nection with these Islands 
 
 " From what I have heard respecting the East Coast, there appears 
 to be no spot at which it would be either desii-able or practicable that 
 an establishment for the regenei-ation and education of captured 
 Africans could be set on foot. These Islands present every advan- 
 tage with respect to proximity, climate, and power of control ; and 
 should the Society determine upon trying the expei^iment here, 1 
 think that it would be eminently successful, I need not say that, 
 so far as lies in my power, I shall be happy to afibrd eveiy as- 
 sistance. 
 
 " It is, of course, impossible to give any idea of the number of 
 slaves likely to be brought here, but I cannot look forward to any 
 reduction in the number of captured dhows. More have been taken 
 by our cruisers during the past twelve months than in any previous 
 year, partly owing to the withdrawal of the whole East African 
 squadron during the Abyssinian war, having left the whole coast 
 open to the Arabs, and partly owing to the limited number of ships 
 in the squadron — a quite inadequate number for the proper protec- 
 tion of the coast, and for anything approaching to the suppression 
 of the Slave Trade. On an average, four dhows out of five i-un 
 their cargoes successfully, so that, judging by the numerous captures, 
 the amount of slaves exported to Arabia and Pei'sia must be vei-y 
 large indeed. During the past five months 451 slaves have been 
 brought here by H.M. ships ' Daphne ' and ' Nyniphe,' and a consi- 
 derable quantity have been taken to Aden. 
 
 " The above remarks, however, only refer to the main question of 
 Slave Trade on the East Coast generally, and I have offered them only 
 with a view to show the Society that, in all probability, very many 
 more Africans will be brought to these Islands, and that any arrange- 
 ments made for their culture aiid amelioration will be most bencH-
 
 86 
 
 cial. I cannot foresee anj difficnlty with respect to sucli arrange- 
 ments, beyond time and money, the usual essentials. With funds 
 there will be no difficult}^ in purchasing a property in this island, 
 which will perfectly answer the desired purpose. This property, if 
 properly looked after, will pay itself, so that no loss can accrue to the 
 Society. Land in Seychelles, however, is almost daily increasing in 
 value, more especially land situated' within a reasonable distance of 
 the Harbour and Town. 
 
 " I have pointed out these matters for the consideration of the 
 Society, in order to show that not only may we expect large numbers 
 of liberated Africans at almost any moment, but that, if any arrange- 
 ments are going to be made, it would be advisable to make them 
 with as little delay as possible on economical grounds, so far as the 
 acquisition of land is concerned. — I remain, &c., 
 
 " Swinburne Ward." 
 
 Extracts from Letter of Governor Sir Henry Barldy to Rev. S. 
 Hobhs, dated Governmsnt House, Mauritius, 16th July, 1869. 
 
 " My Dear Mr. Hobbs, — I return the letter you left for me 
 
 With regard to assistance .... this Government would do anything 
 in its power, as to a grant, &c. ; and if a school were started, it would, 
 of coui\se, be entitled to the usual grant-in-aid. 
 
 " As respects the scope for trained labour in this island, it is, as 
 you know, practically unlimited, though of late Indian labourers 
 have been very much preferred by the planters to such Africans as 
 were brought here. I may, however, mention that one gentleman 
 has applied for a permission to bring down from Aden by the mail 
 steamers some of the slaves who have been just liberated there from 
 the dhows captured by the 'Daphne' and ' Nymphe.' Since these 
 captures I learn from Mr. Ward that the former vessel has landed 52 
 more rescued slaves at Mahe, who were in his hands when he wrote. 
 
 " You will thus see that an ample field is likely to be presented for 
 the benevolent efforts of the Society. — Believe me, &c., 
 
 " Henet Barklt." 
 
 Pi-inted by C. V. Hodgson and Son, Uougli Square. Fleet Street.
 
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