Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

364 APPENDIX.
every half-mile.
It is thoroughly well watered,
and it is hardly necessary in any case to take
any precaution about water.
Another proof of
the great population in the hill coimtry is this :
that there was no game to be found at all, with
the exception of a few guinea-fowl."
950. Sir B. Anstruther.'] " The consequence of
this depopulation is that all this land is lying
waste ?" — " The Doctor, in one of his last letters
to me, speaks of having to cross a tract of 120
miles
where they found not a human being of
any kind. All this land that I am speaking of
is perfectly swept of its inhabitants, and I have
no hesitation in saying that every bit of this
damage and misery has been caused by the
slave-trade."
951. Chairman.'] " Where are the slaves obtained
from now?"— "The slaves are now
The
brought from great distances in the interior.
belt of country between the Lakes and the east
coast is
denuded of its inhabitants, and, therefore,
they have to be brought from the west
side of Lake Nyassa ;
they are transferred across
the lake in Arab dhows ; there are settlements
of Arabs on both sides of the lake, and the
Doctor in his travels has given very accurate
accounts of the slave-trade crossing the lake."
952. "To what power are those Arabs subject?"
— " They are not subject to any one ; they are