Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

APPENDIX. 383
Officers employed in the Suppression of the
Slave-trade.' Those instructions forbid the
detaining of vessels having slaves on board, if
there are attendant circumstances showing that
the slaves are not being transported for the
purpose of being sold as slaves ; and there is
added as an example of the nature of those
circumstances Where the :—' slaves found on
board are very few in
number, are unconfined,
and appear to be on board for the purpose of
loading or working the ship or attending upon
the master or the passengers, and there is no
other evidence that the vessel is engaged in, or
equipped for, the Slave-trade.' "
13. " I believe that, just as it is said a drunkard
can only be cured by total abstinence, so the
Slave-trade by sea can only be put down, if at
all, by a rigid forbidding of
the carrying to sea
of any slaves of any description. As I have
before remarked, even what is called a domestic
slave is not only a salable
article, but an article
which is very often sold; and the return of
those embarked to the port they originally left
depends solely upon whether or no a good offer
lias been made for them at the ports they have
visited in the interval.
I attach (Inclosure No.
2) depositions made before me personally by
some of the slaves captured by her Majesty's
ship 'Forte,' as showing how numerous are
the domestic slaves carried to sea for sale.