'Papers Respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa and the System Pursued for its Suppression' [‎47r] (33/72)

can be made of these alterations. As for water tanks, food, and cooking-pots, it is a well-
known fact that the Arabs are controlled by no regular Ruler in this respect. At times
they have a greater number of water vessels, and a quantity of provisions, in excess of the
wants of those on board. This state of things is notorious with the Arabs ; then, again, it
not unfrequently happens that a large vessel will be provided with an inadequate quantity
of water-casks and cooking utensils, while others may be carrying them from port to port
for the purpose of trade. Nor is an excess of millet on board a sufficient reason to justify
the detention of a ship, for it can very well have been embarked as an article of commerce.
T do not mean to say that, because a ship is loaded with grain, she is consequently
incapable of carrying slaves, but simply that the requirements of some people are greater
than those of others.
With regard to the crew being black, this cannot of itself constitute a proof of the
vessel bfeing engaged in the Slave Trade, for the inhabitants of these countries are mostly
black, nay, they are all black except the Arabs.
Now, three things I have to request of you, who are appointed by the British Govern
ment in this country to look after British interests, and to decide with equity on questions
in dispute ? I know perfectly well that it is not the wish of the Queen's Government to
subject us, whom they consider as friends, to the oppression of the British navy ; and we
are quite sure that Her Majesty's Government have no inclination to force our subjects to
quit our protection, as they are doing every year, to avail themselves of the protection
afforded to them by the French flag. If this state of things is to last much longer,
however, there can be no doubt that every Arab dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. will necessarily be placed under
French protection ; not that such could be their choice, but that they would be driven to
it by the force of things, the ships of our subjects being at present in the sad predicament
of either being destroyed by Her Majesty's ships-of-war, or of imploring the French to
protect them with their flag.
The three things I have therefore to demand of you are,—first, to put a stop to the
seizing and burning of the dhows of our subjects without cause or reason ; secondly, the
payment of the value of the shipping wrongfully burned by Her Majesty's ships-of-war,
together with the value of their cargoes; and, thirdly, that the British navy should no
longer molest the ships of our subjects found between the limits within which the carrying
of slaves is allowed, namely, from Keelwa to Lamo, save during the four months at which
time, in accordance with the wishes of the British Government, we have prohibited the
carrying of slaves in our dominions.
From your Friend,
(L.S.) MAJID BIN SAID.
Inclosure 3 in No. 38.
Mr. Churchill to the Sultan of Zanzibar.
Sir, Zanzibar, December 10, 1868.
1 HAVE received your Highness' letter of the 20th Shaban, addressed to me with
reference to the recent captures of certain dhows by Her Majesty's ships of war off the
coast of Brava.
Your Highness is pleased, in this communication, to observe that without disputing
the right of the British Government to capture your subjects' dhows when they are
engaged in the Slave Trade, you cannot acquiesce in their destruction on mere suspicion
of their being so employed, and you demand of me, as the Representative of Her Majesty's
Government at Zanzibar, the cessation of captures on mere suspicion ; the payment of
damages for shipping captured under such conditions; and the observance, in future, of
your Highness' Treaty rights, according to which British cruizers are not entitled to
exercise the right of capture between Keelwa and Lamo, on the coast of Zanzibar, except
during the first four months of the Christian year.
Your communication on this subject, which is of so important a nature to both
parties, offers me an opportunity of laying before your Highness the result of my observa
tions on the manner in which the Slave Trade is carried on at Brava, the very spot from
whence you have received the rumours of wrongful captures having taken place.
Your Highness remonstrates against the seizure of your subjects' shipping on simple
suspicion, and I may confidently assure you that such a proceeding cannot be approved by
the British Government. No man-of-war is justified in arresting a vessel, to whomsoever
she may belong, without cause, and if Her Majesty's Government have established Vice-
Admiralty Courts at various centres in the Indian Ocean, it is to examine with care the
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