Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

166 DHOW-CHASING.
about three miles south of Brava, where there was
a coral
rock, projecting about twenty or thirty
yards from the shore, forming a point, or rather
breakwater, stretching out beyond the breakers.
We placed the cutters in charge of Sub-
Lieutenants Farrand Henn, north of this point,
and where they could not be seen from the
dhows until abreast of them ; we then steamed
up to the north out of sight of this point, and
that afternoon saw the cutters chasing a dhow
which had to keep out from the shore to avoid
them, and, consequently, to drop down upon
the ship : she was a " legal trader,'^ with
twenty-one slaves on board, in a miserable and
emaciated condition, lying on the top of her
cargo ; there were eight men, four women, and
I
nine children.
Before the boats could return to
their former station, another crowded slaver
hove in sight, and just as we got up to her, she
ran through the breakers, and landed two or
three hundred slaves. I may here remark that
this was never done but by full slavers, the
legal traders preferring to pass their few
slaves off, if possible, as part of their crew,