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 
 
 
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 ''«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.
 
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 ^ ^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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