1906, and revealed the slave-trade masquerading as contract labour, in full swing in Angola, and between Angola and the Cocoa Islands. His disclosures were subsequently confirmed by Mr. Joseph Burtt and Dr. Claude Horton, who accompanied the latter in his prolonged journey into the interior of Angola. Later on further revelations completed the picture, the most important being a series of British Consular reports, the Foreign Office having been induced by the growing agitation to increase its Consular staff and to set it at work on the business of investigation.
The circumstances under which San Thomé labour was "recruited" were briefly these: The interior of Angola was covered with a network of "agents"—Europeans, half-breeds, and natives in European pay—employed by, or connected with, the estate managers on the plantations on the mainland and in the islands, who bribed such officials as they could and intrigued against the others at Lisbon. The purpose of these "agents" was to secure labour by any means: upon that labour they received handsome commissions. The traffic was lucrative. Open raiding, bribery of native chiefs, encouraging litigation among the natives, stirring up inter-tribal warfare, and using as intermediaries the rebellious Congo Free State soldiery which held the frontier country for more than a decade—these were the chief methods employed. The slaves were convoyed along the old slave roads leading from the far interior to the coast, upon which millions of Africans had tramped, and stumbled, and died through the centuries on their way to the Brazils. Once the neighbourhood of "civilisation" was reached and escape became impossible, the shackles were knocked off, the "agent" handed on his captures to his employer, the employer proceeded with them to the nearest magistrate. In the presence of this high official the forms prescribed by "law" were duly enacted. The miserable crowd of broken, half-starved wretches were duly inscribed as having entered for five years upon a "voluntary contract." They bound themselves under this precious deed "to work nine hours on all days that are not sanctified by religion" [sic]. Legality having been thus complied with, the slaves departed with their masters to plantations on the mainland, or, furnished with a new cloth and a metal disc, to the steamer waiting to convey them to the
