Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

262 DHOW-CHASING.
monsoon never had any, and their crews were
invariably much smaller than they were in those
going north. It might be well if commanding
officers were in future to make a return of
dhows boarded, classed according to their
tonnage, especially mentioning the number of
negroes on board those steering north, and those
going southward.
It should be remembered also that not only
northern dhows, but northern Arabs in any
dhows, have no legal right to convey negroes
or domestic slaves from any part of the African
coast northwards. I must add that there
appears to have been culpable oversight of
this and similar points, in the conduct of certain
persons whose conclusions have been erroneous,
but whose opinions have had too much weight.
And with the facts
staring us in the face, that
while seventeen hundred slaves are all that are
required for domestic service in Zanzibar
territory, according to the lowest estimate
twenty thousand, but in reality at least fifty
thousand negroes are imported annually into
that country, and consequently re-exported to