Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

THE CRUISE OP THE " CASTOR." 77
drink out of, and one of my messmates I remember,
was reduced to a cocoa-nut shell for
washing in ;
some uncharitable brother officers
afterwards asserting, to his annoyance, that the
same cocoa-nut shell answered all three purposes
with him.
After refitting at the Mauritius, in October
we returned to the cruising-grounds on the
coast.
It must not be supposed that because we
were not capturing vessels that the trade was
not an extensive one, but then the efforts were
not at that time so much directed against the
coast trade in slaves as against the slavery
carried on by European and American ships.
I
do not believe that the extent of the coast trade
was then fully known, and we had seldom more
than three cruisers off the East Coast, which
extended nearly to the Equator.
The Indian Navy was supposed, at that time,
to be engaged in the suppression of the trade to
the north of this, where it
exists in its greatest
strength, but we have it in evidence before the
Select Committee that it was by no means an