Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

436 APPENDIX.
suffering ; and, in addition to tlie danger from
overcrowding and insufficient
food and water,
the loss of life connected with the attempt to
escape her Majesty's cruisers is very considerable,
it being the practice to use any means
to get rid of the slaves in order to escape
condemnation, should the dhow be captured.
Between Kilwa and Zanzibar a dhow lately
lost a third of the slaves ; there were ninety
thrown overboard, dead or dying, many of
them in a terribly emaciated state.
" The ready market found for the slave in
Arabia and Persia, and the large profit upon
the sale, are quite sufficient inducements for
the continuance of the traffic.
" It seems impossible to arrive at an exact
conclusion as to the actual number of slaves
who leave the African coast in one year, but
from the retmms laid before the Committee an
estimate may be formed. At the port of Kilwa
is the Custom-house of the Sultan of
Zanzibar,
through which pass all slaves that are not
smuggled, and there a tax is levied on all that
pass the Custom-house.
" The following is a Return of the number of
slaves exported through the Custom-house at
Kilwa between 1862 and 1867, distinguishing
those sent to Zanzibar from those shipped to
other places :