The slave trade of east Africa/Appendix
APPENDIX.
Note A.
Extract from Pamphlet on the Slave Trade of East Africa, published by the Church Missionary Society in 1868.
Having thus examined the present condition and circumstances of the East Coast Slave-trade, and the reasons assignable for its existence, 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 on the West, in 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 were; 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 pressing from the East as it was from the West Coast of that unhappy land. If 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 Sierra 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 abstract proposition, it cannot be denied that the diffusion of light and knowledge, and instruction in agriculture, 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 useful to embody in this paper a few of the salient points of that history, whose conditions find an analogy in the past and present circumstances of the East Coast. And, first, we find a common 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 missionary enterprise was attracted to the Guinea Coast and the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, and between 1768 and 1798 fifteen Missionaries were sent out, of whom but one returned home. In 1804 the first Missionaries of the Church Missionary 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 encouragements 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 exceptionally favourable conditions, endure the pestilential climate of that West Coast; and that, instead of wasting their energies upon comparatively 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 favourable 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 but a record of death succeeding death; and even our own Mission at Kisuludini, with the devoted Rebmann 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 effort prior to 1816 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 reproduce on the East, by the use of similar means, those happy results which are manifest on the West Coast. On the West Coast, the Missionaries having failed to make any marked impression by their labours, had been driven into Sierra Leone, at that time a colony, which, from being at first a settlement for freed negroes, 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, gathered from upwards of 100 different tribes in various parts of Africa, speaking widely-distinct languages. Were Sierra Leone to become a centre of light, and these representatives of so many nations to receive the Gospel, how 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 usefulness 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 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. Every effort was made to rescue the poor degraded savages, transferred to their 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 depôt 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 overruled 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 frustrated 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 surrounding country, still less of penetrating into the heart of the continent. The failure of their Missions among the Susus and Bulloms, and their concentration of effort at Sierra Leone, was 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 so effective, as in this corner of the Western shore. From this outlying 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 known as the friend of the black races.
The most interesting features of this Church's history of late years are the rise of a Native Pastorate, and the development of the principle of self-support in the Native Church. Since the ordination of the first African clergyman connected with the Mission, the Rev. Samuel Crowther, the number 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 Timnehs, to the North-East of the colony. In 1845, a Mission was sent to the Yoruba country. A chief town, Abeokuta, was occupied, and the Gospel has since radiated from thence to many of the large towns in the surrounding district. In 1857, a Niger Mission was established, conducted wholly by native African clergymen and laymen, themselves the fruit of the Missionary labours 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 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 reproduced upon the East Coast. This is a most important point, for without some such depôt, possessing the advantages of Sierra Leone, no combined Missionary effort can be made. Although our proper labours as a Missionary Society would be sufficiently employed in teaching and preaching to the heathen negro wherever we may find him, yet the work should in this case, if possible, be initiated 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 tribes of an intelligent industry, and an acquaintance with the higher standards of civilization, must aid in repressing their tendency to engage in this traffic.
Now, to bring these things to bear, what so effectual as the presence among those tribes 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 territory to utilize to the utmost the labour stored up in such a settlement. A settlement 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 principles seem in theory to govern the selection of any place 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, can 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 existing 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 negroes; and we question the probability of our Government, even were it considered advisable, being able to obtain any territory where the experiment could be tried. Thus, then, we appear to be driven 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 some distance from the coast, where, though abandoning the hope of organizing a community whose example should teach the surrounding tribes the more desirable results of civilization, yet nevertheless the Church Missionary Society would have the opportunity of training up a native agency, both pastoral and lay, who might, among their 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 are British territory, and are governed by Mauritius. To these islands many liberated slaves are now taken by our cruisers; and unfortunately, there being no sufficient supervision or control, much immorality has been the result, and the Government have been urged not to liberate any more negroes 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 squadron to be available as the regular depôt. No 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 slavers and liberate slaves, the Seychelles Islands seem to be the most suitable depôt; and after a careful consideration of the subject, it does seem that no place would be so suitable for commencing the experiment.
But while the necessity of thus 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 Mission, we are compelled to appeal to the friends of Missions in our Church for the funds necessary to the proper support 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 Western 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 ultimate remedy and final suppression of the Trade; and here we can do no more than urge measures, the adoption of which will, in the opinion of the best authorities, first suppress, and finally extinguish, the foreign Slave Trade. It is easily gathered 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. Frere, 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 would 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 contemplated by our Government, appears from the despatch of Lord Russell, dated 14th March 1864. He says that it is the determination of Her Majesty's Government to suppress the foreign Slave Trade, and that, with this object, Colonel Pelly had been instructed to propose to the Sultan a Treaty engagement, to be incorporated with the existing Treaty, which should altogether prohibit 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 the existing Treaty for the suppression of Slave Trade." 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.
Note B.
Extracts from Dr. Livingstone's Report on the East African Slave Trade, dated East Africa, Lat. 11° 18' S., Long. 37° 10' E., June 11, 1866.
"I 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 Government against the Slave Trade, which have been realized in large portions of Western Africa inhabited by less promising races of people.
"The reasons assigned for the continuance of this very unsatisfactory state of affairs derive their force and speciousness partly from political considerations, and partly from forebodings of the evils involved 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 to change their ways, gilds the whole subject.
"Among the political considerations are specified, that these Northern 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 Arabs 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 Chieftainship has been separated from those possessions in Asia whence 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 powerlessness to withstand the slaving propensities of the pirates 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 proclamation would ensure a revolution, his own expulsion, 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 furnishes 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 complete cessation of the trade in slaves. It certainly never was contemplated by either of the contracting parties that a special stipulation 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 the 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 throughout the world demands.
Extract from Letter of Dr. Livingstone to the Earl of Clarendon, dated Lake Nyassa, 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 fairly be called injurious to the status of slavery in the Island of Zanzibar. It is a sheer absurdity to imagine 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, Mombas, &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 English man-of-war should 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 depôt in their vicinity, so that after a single capture the cruiser may not, as usually happens, be obliged to retire and land the slaves at the most important crisis for action."
Mr. Consul Churchill to the Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay; dated Zanzibar, August 14, 1867.
After referring 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 instructions to be pressed on the Sultan for his acceptance.
"In my conversations with the Sultan, and with his Chief Secretary, Sheikh Suliman, I made a point of making His Highness understand the necessity of proving to Her Majesty's Government his earnestness to co-operate 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 therefore, 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 would 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 three-fifths of his seaboard. He appeared 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 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 adjudication; and provided also that, Chewley being beyond Cape Dege, special vessels be appointed to carry thereto the slaves the island may require 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 Salim 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 us in Zanzibar. Be this known. Written on the 13th Rebbi ussame, 1284.
"From your friend Majid-bin-Said. In the Sultan's own handwriting.
"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."
Note C.
Extract from the Minutes of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, dated March 3, 1858.
"The subject of measures to be adopted for the protection and education of the slaves liberated by British 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 Africa, 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 depôts 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 Commissioner, explained to him the system pursued by the Society in Sierra Leone, but gave him to understand that the Society would attempt nothing more than a school at present, at the Seychelles, leaving operations of a more complex nature until circumstances led naturally to their adoption. 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 Mahé 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 rate, so that a Missionary, of sound health at first, might reasonably hope to continue his labours for years 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 reports, that a Mission here, judiciously conducted, would be very inexpensive. The expense of boarding for school 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 Mahé, the rations served out to labourers consist almost exclusively of maize, manioc, and other productions of the country, which can be produced in any quantity, if sufficient land be secured, and a few adult labourers kept for its cultivation. The school children should be trained from the first to assist, and soon might do all the work that has to be done.
Letter of Swinburne Ward, Esq., H. M. Commissioner for the Seychelles Islands, to Rev. S. Hobbs, dated Government House, Seychelles, May 22, 1869.
"Sir,—According to your desire, I beg to offer the following remarks upon Slave Trade upon the East African Coast, and its connection with these Islands.…
"From what I have heard respecting the East Coast, there appears to be no spot at which it would be either desirable or practicable that an establishment for the regeneration and education of captured Africans could be set on foot. These Islands present every advantage with respect to proximity, climate, and power of control; and should the Society determine upon trying the experiment here, I think that it would be eminently successful, I need not say that, so far as lies in my power, I shall be happy to afford every assistance.
"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 protection of the coast, and for anything approaching to the suppression of the Slave Trade. On an average, four dhows out of five run their cargoes successfully, so that, judging by the numerous captures, the amount of slaves exported to Arabia and Persia must be very large indeed. During the past five months 451 slaves have been brought here by H.M. ships 'Daphne' and 'Nymphe,' and a considerable 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 arrangements made for their culture and amelioration will be most beneficial. I cannot foresee any difficulty with respect to such arrangements, beyond time and money, the usual essentials. With funds there will be no difficulty 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 arrangements 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.,
Extracts from Letter of Governor Sir Henry Barkly to Rev. S. Hobbs, dated Government 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 course, 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 Mahé, 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.,