'Papers Respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa and the System Pursued for its Suppression' [‎32r] (3/72)

abandon our present policy is, that while, on the one hand, our cruizers are engaged in
capturing native vessels carrying slaves, on the other hand, British capital and enterprise
are both engaged in the Island of Zanzibar in encouraging the Slave Trade by employing
slave-labour; and this discrepancy in our proceedings is stated to be the subject of
comment to our discredit among the natives and authorities in the Sultan's territories.
To deal with this latter point first, I would say that only a few years since we
compelled our Indian subjects, of whom there are a great number settled at Zanzibar, to
manumit^ some thousands of slaves who Colonel Rigby found were held by them in
bondage in that island. And as regards British capital and enterprise being employed in
encouraging slave-labour, I take it Mr. Seward alludes to the firm of Fraser and Co., who
have recently taken some large sugar estates on lease from the Sultan, and have contracted
for a supply of slave-labour, and our answer to this is that as soon as Her Majesty's
Government were aware that British subjects were thus indirectly encouraging the Slave
Trade and violating the provisions of British laws, no time was lost in warning the firm in
question of the penalties the}' - were incurring by their proceedings.
This despatch only went off a few weeks since, and could not, therefore, have been
received by Mr. Seward when he wrote his despatch of the 10th September.
There is not, therefore, a shadow of a pretext for accusing Her Majesty's Govern
ment of inconsistency in regard to their proceedings for the suppression of the Slave
Trade.
With regard to the statement that it should be our policy to strengthen the Sultan in
the eyes of his people, I would observe that this may be true, but it can hardly be held
that, in order to strengthen the position of the Sultan, we are to connive at his subjects
carrying on the Slave Trade to an unlimited extent in violation of His Highness' engage
ments towards this country for the suppression of the Slave Trade.
The Sultan has, in fact, been maintained on his Throne mainly by British influence,
and we should unquestionably be open to the charge of inconsistency if we continued our
support, and at the same time tacitly acquiesced in his subjects engaging in the Slave
Trade to an unlimited extent. In proof of the extent to which slaves are now introduced
into Zanzibar from the mainland, I would quote Mr. Seward's own Report dated in May
of this year, in which he states that 72,000, or an annual average of 14,400 slaves have
passed through the Zanzibar Custom-house during the last five years as imports.
Now, it is notorious that the island cannot utilize the services of all these negroes,
and therefore there can be no doubt that the majority of the slaves imported are again
exported to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Red Sea. As every slave introduced into Zanzibar pays
a certain duty to the Sultan, and Mr. Seward's statistics are taken from the Custom-house
Returns, there is little doubt that the numbers are not exaggerated.
The Sultan has been warned on many occasions that he must not reckon on the Slave
Trade as a source of revenue, and that the sooner he made arrangements for abolishing the
Traffic in Slaves between the mainland and Zanzibar, the better it would be in the end for
him ; for that the time would come when we should feel obliged to put a stop entirely to
the export of slaves from the African Coast.
It would seem, however, that although the export of slaves from the Portuguese
Possessions on the East Coast has very considerably decreased, the numbers exported from
the Sultan's territory, must have considerably augmented, and Mr. Seward's suggestions,
if carried out, would increase the Traffic still more.
There remains now to deal with the suggestion contained in Mr. Seward's despatch
of the 20th of September : viz., that we should obtain possession of the Island of Abel-
Kury, near the Straits of Socotra, and establish a depot there, where captured slave-vessels
might be deposited and our cruizers coaled, instead of having to proceed, as they are
obliged to do now, some 1,200 to 1,500 miles away from their cruizing-ground whenever
fuel is required or a capture of slaves is made.
I can only say that I entirely concur in this suggestion, and have no doubt that if it
is intended to put a stop to the Slave Traffic on the East Coast, we shall sooner or later
be compelled to adopt some such measure as is now recommended, and that it will be
good economy in the long run to do so.
I think, also, it would be a very good plan, and in fact they have recommended it to
the Admiralty, that during the months of January, February, March, and April, when the
monsoon suits for the Arabs to run their cargoes to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Red Sea, our
cruizers should be concentrated in the Straits of Socotra, as all the native vessels are
compelled to pass those Straits to make for the northern ports; and therefore if an efficient
watch is kept there, it would be impossible, or very nearly so, for a single slaver to escape,
but during the remainder of the year 1 think our cruizers should be employed on the
African Coast; as if that coast were abandoned altogether, the traffic from the Portuguese