Sir J. Kennan-at/fi Motion on April 4, 1876.
EAST AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
The
facts
attention of
:
Members
is
earnestly directed to the following
states
Committee of the House, in 1871, of Negro Slaves from the East Coast of Africa averaged 20,000, and adds
of a Select
The Eeport
that the registered export
"Such
and
is
the fearful loss of
it,
life
resulting from this
traffic,
such
the miseries which attend
that, according to Dr. Livingstone
others, not one in five, in
some
cases not one in ten, of the
(JReport
victims of the slave-hunters overreach the coast alive."
of Select Committee, page
v.)
The Report of
Sir B. Frere, in 1873, puts the total export at
Sir B. Frere adds
:
35,000 per annum.
" I observe in some recent publications a tendency to impute
exaggeration to Dr. Livingstone and his companions, in reference to the mortality attending their capture, and their
on the journey down to the coast. I may menI have made these points the subject of particular inquiry, and the result was to produce a strong consuiferings
tion, therefore, that
viction of the entire general accuracy of the statements referred
to."
{Blue Book on Sir B. Frere's Mission.)
large
The
majority of the slaves were brought from the
b}^ sea to
interior to Kilwa, a port near the southern limits of the Zanzibar
dominion, and carried thence
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 He says, speaking of one gang road for the north.
:
" There were, I estimated, about 300 all in wretched con-
One gang of lads and women, chained together with iron 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
dition.
neck
rings,
tightly stretched over with wrinkled, parchment-like skin."
Again, on January
*'
*
8,
1874, he writes
long string; 'there
the Sultan
;
There has never been such a good year,' said one owner of a is a great demand, and no duty levied by
the 24 dollars which went to
him
before for slaves
is
profit.'
shipped by sea "
we
save,
and the land journej^
worked
at a
Captain Elton states that agents will pay thirty or forty dollars
for each slave,
and adds
as such prices can be procured the trade will and I can see nothing to stop the inland route (all arrangements are carefully completed, and no insurmountable
flourish,
difficulties in
"
As long
the way) but rooting out the trade root and branch."
S. Price,
The Rev. W. Mombasa^ says
:
writing in IN'ovember, 1875, from
"
The Christian philanthropists
realized what East African slavery
the treaty which provides for
England have not yet half or they would not rest till the capture and liberation of slaves
of
is,
by sea
'
is
amplified, so as to legalise the liheratmi of slaves conveyed
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
by land.
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."
vicinity of
at
The hunting grounds of the slaver have chiefly been in the Lake Nyassa. Livingstone found the slave-hunters work to the west of Lake Tanganika Stanley meets them on
;
s^
uiuc Z\
''Kn(y>
and the latest accounts from the Scotch Missions on Lake Nyassa state that five dhows are now on All these slaves will most probably that lake collecting slaves.
the Victoria ]S"yanza
;
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. checked.
(20th March, 1871) says
The land- traffic must be
Dr. Kirk, the Consul at Zanzibar, speaking of the land-traffic,
it will be found expedient, 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
"I am
certain,
however, that
if
not necessary,
so
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
be
this
nature
on the coast would
a break in the land route that will at once
is
be ojoened ichen the sea transport
^^rohibited
and blockaded."
:
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
And
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-
mentthere 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 All I should aim at treaties with other countries.
made
in his
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
n
,OMBO
Y BEPOKE THE
;
OF GRADUATES
1876
vj.
^nij^Ax
i/i/v.of3i.a
^wwt,
AND SINCE COMPLETED
ROBERT CAMPBELL MOBERLY,
Senior-Studetit oj Christ Church
M.A.
Chaplain
to the
Lord Bishop of
Salisbur;/
JAMES PARKER AND
1876
CO.
&Jo^k^
