THE SLAVE TRADE ON THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1179, 4 July 1874, Page 6

THE SLAVE TRADE ON THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA.

: We take the following from the supple- ; ment of the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of March 25. It is dated from Zanzibar, the " middle of February " :—: — I am now in a position to give you some details relative to the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa, which will doubtless be read in Germany with considerable interest. An English man-of war arrived in Zanzibar wi'h a dhow having on board thirty-eight slaves. The man-of-war's boats sighted the dhow in the Pemba Channel, and gained on her in chase so that the crew of the dhow, seeing escape impossible, ran her on shore. On the approach of the boats the Arabs fired on them ; but the boat's crew succeeded in capturing thirty-eight slaves and one of the Arabd ; the remainder of the slaves —there were 110 in the dhow — were carried off by the Arabs. Through an interpreter they learned that these slaves formed part of a large caravan from the interior, and were on the road from Kilsa to Sanga, where these 110 slaves were sold to Arabs of Pemba. The rest of the slave caravan then proceeded northward. These slaves were of the kind called Mjinga, which is a Kiswahili word, meaning wild men who do not speak the coast language. Among them were twenty-five Surias — young girls owned by one of the Arabs, who bought them to sell in the harems. Strange as it may appear, it is still far from improbable that these thirty-eight slaves will be again given up to their Arab masters in Pemba, I for we hear that the English Foreign Office have issued instructions, founded on the opinion of the Crown lawyers, that only those slaves who have not yet become the j property of resident Arabs are to be freed. ! The Arabs are wanting neither in intel- I ligence nor cunning ; for as soon as they I learned the opinion of the English Grown lawyers, both proprietors and dealers set off for the mainland, purchased, as in the present case, their slaves, and took them to the islands, where they quietly await an occasion of moving them farther north. This probable surrender of slaves — the result of the hair- splitting reading by the English Crown lawyers of the Treaty of I the sth of June, 1873 — has caused con- I siderable remark both among Europeans 1 and natives. In the commencement of the Treaty of the sth of June, 1873, it is stated that, former treaties having proved insufficient to stop the slave-trade, the present Treaty forbids all transport of slaves by sea between any portions of the Sultan's dominions'. The roles have never been changed ; for I have heard that the Sultan Seyid Burgash, as soon as he knew the opinions of the English Crown laAvyers, of his own free accord, declared that ho could not accept these views, and that the original j treaty, which was in the Arabic language, ! could not possibly bear such an interpre- j tation. It is commonly reported here ' | that he has now gone so far as to forward ' to the English Government a deed declaring that according to his opinion, aB one of the contracting parties interested { in the treaty, it is illegal to transport slaves against their will on the sea. Further, the Sultan is willing, in order to quiet the very scrupulous consciences of the English Crown lawyers, to execute an additional article to the above treaty. The loyalty and conscientiousness of the ! Sultan Seyid Burgash cannot be too highly .

praised, as such observance of treaties id rare with Arabs ; and the more so as the course he now pursues will embroil him with his subjects and bring his life into jeopardy. We have here before ua , the unparalleled instance of an Oriental prince more willing than the English Government itself to operate for the suppression of the slave trade. An English official went some time ago to the river Rufigi to inquire whether British subjects or those under British protection were engaged in the slave trade or were holders of slaves. This official, as I learn, reporta that he has liberated more than 1000 slaves belonging to Indians, and has made the sad discovery that slaves are being transported in great numbers northward. In one month he met more than 4000, and found the caravan route fully organised with stations for feeding and resting the slaves. According to his calculation, more than thirty thousand are thus transported along the coast to the northward. I regret t® have to menI tion an occurrence closely related to a"hd the result of the slave trade. Mr Hartley, a young missionary, met a i slave caravan of about forty slaves near Pangani. Entering into conversation with one of them while resting, the leader < of the caravan asked why he spoke with one of his slaves, which led to a dispute. On turning his back the Arab fired at Hartley, and hacked him with a sword, I leaving him for dead. Hartley's servants, finding him in this state, conveyed him to a doctor. He will most probably die of his wounds, as his brain is exposed in two places. To return to the slave trade, I may say that all Europeans in Zanzibar are of opinion that it might with little cost or trouble be entirely stopped, the more so aa the Sultan is not averse eventually to totally abolish slavery in his dominions. Dar-esa-Salam, a town on the mainland opposite to Zanzibar, is one of the few healthy spots on the east coast of Africa. It possesses a good harbour, and it is worth while considering whether it could not be converted into a colony for liberated negroes, under the rule of the Sultan of Zanzibar, but protected by some European Power, This would, in my opiuion, be the most efficient means of bringing about the eventual abolition of the slave trade. This colony would be a place of refuge for liberated Africans, who could not return home to their own people. The situation of this town is a very favourable one from which to intercept the slave caravans as they pass along the coast, as the slave route could not be transferred much further inland. When we know fully the horrors of thisnow very extensive trade, with its neoessary accompaniments, murder, arson, and the desolation of whole districts, not reckoning the thousands who are yearly enslaved, surely the time has at last arrived when active measures should be enforced to put an end to this traffic. Humanity demands that all oivilised nations unite to this end, the more so aa England single-handed seems quite unable to accomplish it.