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Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

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232 DHOW-CHASING.<br />

schooner, and altliougli we put some questions<br />

to them, and tried by signs to make them<br />

understand us, it was all <strong>in</strong> va<strong>in</strong>, which proved<br />

they had only recently been brought from<br />

the <strong>in</strong>terior.<br />

<strong>The</strong> case was most palpable, yet<br />

we could not take the risk of deta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the<br />

vessel, and send<strong>in</strong>g her to the Cape, the only<br />

place to which we could legally send her, on<br />

account of the passports and her unseaworth<strong>in</strong>ess.<br />

Never conceiv<strong>in</strong>g it possible, however,<br />

that the governor could have decided that these<br />

children and the other negroes on board were<br />

not slaves, I sent her <strong>in</strong>to Mozambique, to obta<strong>in</strong><br />

his op<strong>in</strong>ion, with the <strong>in</strong>tention of destroy<strong>in</strong>g<br />

her if they were declared to be slaves. This<br />

certa<strong>in</strong>ly was a severe test of the honesty of the<br />

professions of the Portuguese with respect to<br />

the abolition of the slave-trade, and it proved<br />

too severe for them ; the governor assured mo<br />

that they were " free negroes," and had passports<br />

!<br />

In the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of the year 1869, the little<br />

power which still rema<strong>in</strong>ed to the Portuguese<br />

was nearly annihilated on the coast, Sofala was

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