Sir J. Kennan-at/fi Motion on April 4, 1876.]
EAST AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
The attention of Members is earnestly directed to the following
facts : —
The Eeport of a Select Committee of the House, in 1871,
states that the registered export of Negro Slaves from the
East Coast of Africa averaged 20,000, and adds : —
"Such is the fearful loss of life resulting from this traffic, such
the miseries which attend it, that, according to Dr. Livingstone
and others, not one in five, in some cases not one in ten, of the
victims of the slave-hunters overreach the coast alive." — (JReport
of Select Committee, page v.)
The Report of Sir B. Frere, in 1873, puts the total export at
35,000 per annum. Sir B. Frere adds : —
" I observe in some recent publications a tendency to impute
exaggeration to Dr. Livingstone and his companions, in refe-
rence to the mortality attending their capture, and their
suiferings on the journey down to the coast. I may men-
tion, therefore, that I have made these points the subject of
particular inquiry, and the result was to produce a strong con-
viction of the entire general accuracy of the statements referred
to." — {Blue Book on Sir B. Frere's Mission.)
The large majority of the slaves were brought from the
interior to Kilwa, a port near the southern limits of the Zanzibar
dominion, and carried thence b}^ sea to Zanzibar, and thence to
Arabia, Persia, Egypt, and India.
Under the treaty of 1873 permission was given to British
cruizers to seize any vessel belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar
engaged in transporting slaves, and the export trade as formerly
carried on has been checked by the blockade thus established.
It was feared that the blockade by sea could be evaded by
passing the slaves along from the south to the north by land,
and accordingly Captain Elton was sent to inquire as to this
land-traffic between Kilwa and the north.
Captain Elton states that between the 21st December, 1873,
and the 20th January, 1874, 4,096 slaves passed him on the
road for the north. He says, speaking of one gang : —
" There were, I estimated, about 300 all in wretched con-
dition. One gang of lads and women, chained together with iron
neck rings, was in a horrible state^, their lower extremities
coated with dry mud and their own excrement, and torn with
thorns, their bodies mere frame-works, and their skeleton limbs
tightly stretched over with wrinkled, parchment-like skin."
Again, on January 8, 1874, he writes :—
*' * There has never been such a good year,' said one owner of a
long string; 'there is a great demand, and no duty levied by
the Sultan ; the 24 dollars which went to him before for slaves
shipped by sea we save, and the land journej^ is worked at a
profit.' "
Captain Elton states that agents will pay thirty or forty dollars
for each slave, and adds : —
" As long as such prices can be procured the trade will
flourish, and I can see nothing to stop the inland route (all
arrangements are carefully completed, and no insurmountable
difficulties in the way) but rooting out the trade root and branch."
The Rev. W. S. Price, writing in IN'ovember, 1875, from
Mombasa^ says : —
" The Christian philanthropists of England have not yet half
realized what East African slavery is, or they would not rest till
the treaty which provides for the capture and liberation of slaves
by sea is amplified, so as to legalise the liheratmi of slaves conveyed
by land. Till this is done, comparatively little is done to heal the
' open sore ' which is a disgrace to humanity, and which brings a
curse upon the fair country in which it is suffered to exist. It is a
fact that within twenty miles of this place, there passes
from south to north an almost continuous stream of
miserable creatures — human beings, men, women, and
children — exposed to every hardship and cruelty by the men-
stealers, who have caught them in their toils."
The hunting grounds of the slaver have chiefly been in the
vicinity of Lake Nyassa. Livingstone found the slave-hunters
at work to the west of Lake Tanganika ; Stanley meets them on
s^
uiuc Z\
''«Kn(y»>
the Victoria ]S"yanza ; and the latest accounts from the Scotch
Missions on Lake Nyassa state that five dhows are now on
that lake collecting slaves. All these slaves will most probably
be marched down to the coast, and then driven along to the north,
to such ports as for the time may not be watched by our ships.
It is manifest that further measures are needed for
the suppression of the trade. The land- traffic must be
checked.
Dr. Kirk, the Consul at Zanzibar, speaking of the land-traffic,
(20th March, 1871) says :—
"I am certain, however, that it will be found expedient,
if not necessary, so long as Zanzibar remains a free Arab
Government, for us to have a free settlement somewhere on the
coast, possibly not an English possession, but certainly under
our administration. On such a station only could a mass of
freed slaves be properly and advantageously dealt with for the
first five years of their freedom, and a settlement of this nature
on the coast would be a break in the land route that will at once
be ojoened ichen the sea transport is ^^rohibited and blockaded."
And again, on the 5th September, 1871, he says : —
"It seems to me that if some station could be secured on the
mainland at a distance from the island, a very much healthier
place might be obtained, and a free African colony founded.
The Arabs, however, will at first be much opposed to such a
settlement, knowing the influence it would have on the system
of slavery, and the fear that it was established with ulterior
views of extending our dominion. If these views were once
got over— and this might easily be done with judicious manage-
ment—there is abundance of unoccupied ground available.
In forming any such station I should not propose in any way
to interfere with the Sultan's sovereign rights, claim the power
of raising taxes, or otherwise infringe the provisions made in his
treaties with other countries. All I should aim at would be to
become possessed as proprietors of a moderate tract of land, the
fact of proprietorship alone giving us, under treat}', jurisdiction
within the same as far as we should require."
The Govenime7tt tvlll be urged to take further steps to make the
treaty effective y and to make proper p'ovision for liberated slaves.
Your presence is earnestly requested during the Evening.
[Over — see Map.
■Ula Zambeyv
^ ^i^c-or Yf^t^t^i/ f i^
\
; QUESTION
OP
LY SOCIETY
,OMBO
Y BEPOKE THE
; OF GRADUATES
v»j.» ^nij^Ax , i/i/£v.of3i.a ^wwt, 1876
AND SINCE COMPLETED
ROBERT CAMPBELL MOBERLY, M.A.
Senior-Studetit oj Christ Church
Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Salisbur;/
JAMES PARKER AND CO.
1876
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