Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

78 DHOW-CHASING.
enviable position for an Indian officer to place
himself in that of the captor of a slaver.^
I must now recur to the early part of our
cruise; after returning to the ship, in consequence
of information received that the
barracoons at the town of Keonga were full of
slaves which had just arrived from the interior,
and were ready for being shipped, the boats
were manned and armed, and proceeded under
command of Captain Bunco to that town, for
the purpose of attacking it, burning the
barracoons and liberating the slaves : it was
supposed to be well defended. We approached
the town in broad daylight, and as the tide
was scarcely high enough, anchored and break-
*
The difficulties attending the suppression of the slavetrade
with regard to the Indian Navy were so great, that
the officers belonging to that service never made any captures.
In the Courts of Justice in Bombay, a Captain,
after having made a capture, was deprived of his command,
in order that the evidence of the officers might not be influenced
by him ; so that very few captains took the trouble
to capture slavers, in fact, I have heard them say they put
the helm the other way and went away clear of the dhow
whenever they came across one. Vide Mr. Churchill's
Evidence, Q. 333.