Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

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PORTUGUESE POSSESSIONS. 229
of ascertaining day by day wliat was going on
in the principal ports south of Quiloa and
Zanzibar, as our consuls and others had had
with respect to the
Zanzibar trade, for we have
in the hands of the Portuguese equal in atrocity those so
well known to accompany it on the Western Coast, and its
late increase among them is fast destroying the last faint
traces of civilization left in their once prosperous settlements
on the East Coast of Africa, Large tracts of fertile country
are becoming depopulated, and the remains of the semibarbarous
tribes in the neighbourhood are being driven to a state
of desperation, which threatens at no distant period to be the
scourge and ruin of their degenerate and inhuman masters. . .
" 14, But if the suppression of slavery in the Portuguese
settlements is an object most desirable in itself, its importance
is enhanced in view of any attempt on our part to
abolish the traffic in the adjoining African territories dependent
on Zanzibar. The fact of a neighbouring Christian
people, known to be extensively engaged in the trade, is at
onee a precedent and a strong ground of apology to the
slave-dealing Mahometans. No formal argument, indeed,
is based on that plea ; but hints as to our consistency in so
strongly urging them to forego the
practice, and doubts as
to the disinterestedness of our motives in the solicitation,
whilst our co-religionists are allowed to pursue the same
course with comparative impunity, are frequently dropped
by Mussulmans of those parts in all discussions regarding
the abolition of the slave-trade. Submitting this remark
as an additional argument in support of the energetic
measures recommended for the suppression of the traffic in
the Portuguese settlements."'