Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

APPENDIX. 341
told, between legal and illegal traders, but
when a slaver has a cargo of slaves on board,
there is
no difficulty in distinguishing whether
they are domestic slaves, or whether they are
slaves carried for sale."
816. " Have you been able to learn from any
papers that have come before you, whether
domestic slaves are often taken to sea for sale ? "
— "I should have thought not; I should have
thought it exceptional ; the captain of the dhow
perhaps might, if he had a good offer for a
slave, sell him, but I should have thought,
generally, that the slaves he had on board
would be so valuable to him, as hardly to make
it worth his while to sell them."
817. " If they are trained for mariners at all,
they would be much more valuable on the
ship
than on the mainland ?" — " Many of these dhows
have perhaps half their crews composed of
slaves, and, if they sold them, I should have
thought a master would have great difficulty in
navigating his dhow home again."
818. " How do you know a domestic slave
from a slave intended for exportation?"— "I
have always understood that the slaves when they
got to Zanzibar were well-treated, that they
became more civilized, and got into better
condition; whereas the slaves exported from
Kilwa, which is the chief port of exportation.