Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

334 APPENDIX.
ing, ' This treaty has never been observed by the
subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar or of the
Imaum of Muscat, and it is of no use having
a treaty in force that is never observed.' "
611. " Would you at once forbid all export of
slaves to the island of Zanzibar ?" — " The worst
part of the slave-trade is that from Lake Nyassa
to the south, Ealwa being the port of shipment.
The whole of that vast and rich country is
becoming depopulated.
Banyans who have been
for years at Zanzibar have told me that they
remember, when they first came to the coast,
the whole country was densely populated down
to the sea-coast, and now you have to
go eighteen
days' journey inland before you come upon
a village almost. That is fully confirmed by
Baron Van der Decken and Dr. Rosher, who
travelled that route. Baron Van der Decken
talks of miles and miles of ruined towns and
\411ages the whole way up towards Lake Nyassa,
where there is now no population at all.
Every
year this slave-trade is extending farther and
farther inland. A great number of the slaves
are now brought from the western side of Lake
Nyassa ;
the Arabs have got dhows on the lake
on purpose to convey theu^ slaves across.
I had
a proof at Zanzibar of how the slave-trade
extends from nation to nation in Africa. I
found, in registering all the slaves I emanci-