Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

62 DflOW-CHASING.
that these so-called "Legal traders" convey,
perhaps, one third of the slaves to the more
northern market. This plan, however, is
generally frustrated, if there be on board the
cruiser, a native interpreter who can detect
a
slave in a moment, however attired, as officers
who have had any experience sometimes can,
for a few questions to one or two of the poor
creatures through the interpreter,—such as,
where they came from, and how they got there ?
—are sufficient. But we, having no interpreter,
were unable to put such questions, and how
many vessels escaped us in consequence it is
impossible to say ; but we boarded on this part
of the coast sometimes two or three dhows in a
day, and, recollecting how full many of them
were of Arabs and negroes, I feel convinced
from subsequent experience that hundreds of
slaves must have so run the gauntlet and passed
us, through our then ignorance of this so-called
"legal trader's" method of carrying slave
cargoes.
It must not be lost sight of, however, that
the interpreters are Arabs, who until they have