being taken to Pemba, and 1000 to Zanzibar! As we shall have to come to Lake Nyassa immediately, let me ask my readers to attempt to realize what this actually means. It was my lot once to be with Dr. Livingstone in the vicinity of Lake Nyassa, and at a time when for the slaver it was an exceedingly happy hunting-ground. As a consequence of what we saw, Livingstone reckoned that for every slave that got to his or her destination ten lives were lost. Inasmuch as the ground is now so cleared of slaves near the coast (that is to say, for the normal mode of collecting) that the Zanzibar Arabs have to procure them more than half-way across Africa, as shown recently by Mr. Arnot, the calculation of ten lives per slave may probably now be under the mark. The Arab slave-dealer's appearance on the scene means raids; quarrels fomented between strong and weak chiefs; a neglected sowing season in the prevailing disturbance; famine, and then the pestilence which follows on starvation. A vast proportion of the slaves perish on their journey to the coast, and finally the mortality is great at sea in overcrowded and unseaworthy dhows; for, with the possibility of capture before his eyes, the slave-shipper-particularly if he is bound for Pemba-charters any old cranky craft which will hold together for the trip. On the 5th of March last year, Mr. Philip J. Stopford, midshipman of the Garnet (who seems to be, by the Admiralty accounts, a very cormorant for snapping up slavers), chased a dhow off Pemba. The man at the helm lost his head, the dhow was capsized, and 92 out of 112 slaves and slavers were drowned.* One could multiply facts of this kind ad infinitum were it necessary. Everything goes to show that we are shutting our eyes to the wilful evasions of treaties by a shifty ruler and his subordinates, or that we are foolish enough to bolster up a fiction which takes the form of a grandiloquent reference to the Sultan, his power and influence, when really such attributes have never had any existence in the directions we indicate upon the mainland, and are conspicuous by their absence forty miles from his capital! It is devoutly to be wished that an already mooted Conference could assemble; then the anti-slavery sentiments, to which the European Powers have jointly and severally pledged themselves, might really take a practical and concrete form, for never was a question in greater need of a general overhaul. At the moment this is impossible, owing to the very natural prejudices which have succeeded the fiasco of the so-called German colonists, followed by consequent entanglements and cross purposes with those who would otherwise be inclined to listen to our representations. Here, too, there is a somewhat ludicrous anomaly only too patent. England is labouring under the disability which is generally assigned to the crow who cannot ,count three. Of him it is said that you have only to get two other * Blue Book (Africa) No. 7 (1888), p. 33. a persons to approach him from different quarters, and you yourself can walk up, gun in hand, and bag him. Be this as it may, what with watching Germany, our fellow blockader in one direction, and France, who has prostituted her flag to the Comoro slavers, in the other (involving some most unpleasant episodes with our fleet), the Zanzibar Arab-the man with the gun- -comes on us boldly enough! Indeed, positively apologetic tone prevails regarding him. "He is exasperated by the Germans;" "his trade is at a standstill;" "the Sultan's power has passed away from the coast under coercion; ""the slave trade has nothing to do with these outbreaks"—and so forth. It would redound a great deal more to our common-sense if we took the trouble to see that, instead of lavishing all this ill-regulated sympathy upon the Zanzibar subjects, the present state of chaos which has grown up within the last year is a windfall to these partially restrained slavers which they are not likely to let slip. I have it on the highest authority that there is a general scramble on the part of the Arabs along the Zanzibar coast to ship slaves. The N.W. monsoon is blowing, and every creek can hide away its dhow till she is laden with the first gang of slaves that can be seized and clapped into chains in the adjacent villages. Before the wind in the run for Madagascar no vessel in the blockading squadron has the least chance with a dhow, Take, again, the case of the "rebel" Bushiri, whose name has been in most of the Zanzibar telegrams, and for whom some favour might be felt-malgré his attitude towards the German "colonial man "because he has protected English missionaries in a brave manner. That the sun shines for his particular hay-time he sees plainly enough, thus:a large slave-market has now been established in the camp of Bushiri, where an enormous number of captured slaves are present, many being sold daily.”* In short, a state of things prevails which is a disgrace to all concerned. Our traders on Lake Nyassa are brought to a standstill by these Arabs. Our Scotch missionaries on the same lake see their pupils seized under their eyes, to be borne off to harems and plantations. Our English missionaries, out of good fellowship, turn a blind eye to their doings, only to find that the men they have been handin-glove with are the agents for devastating the fields of their labour. Bushiri saves those one day who are consecrated to the duty of abating the terrors and woes of Nyassa Land, and the next day" establishes a large slave market" to sell off Nyassas and Yaos who come from that very land, to the best bidder! There is a savour of "running with the hare and hunting with the hounds" about all this which surely ought to be as offensive to the nostrils of an Englishman as it must certainly be a puzzle to every faculty possessed by the aforesaid "poor devil," who has been marched down to market, *Times telegram, February 4. with a tusk of ivory on his shoulder, from Nyassa, to see these slaving Arabs and the English on the very best terms! The plain truth of the matter is this, however disagreeable it may be to utter it. We are ourselves such believers in the gospel of "Nothing succeeds like success that we don't care to be too particular in asking how it comes about that Zanzibar has of a sudden become so rich. We are rather proud of our ward than otherwise. Our ivory-handled knives clatter none the less merrily on our plates because British-Indian subjects have "stood in" with the Arabs, who are tearing Africa to pieces for elephants' teeth. Our political agent, Colonel Euan-Smith, writes from Zanzibar to Lord Salisbury on the 28th of last June: "It is through these British-Indian merchants that the Arabs and chiefs in the interior are supplied with all the arms and ammunitions." He adds that this reaches a turn-over annually of some "80,000 to 100,000 firearms . . chiefly arms of precision and breech-loading rifles.' . . . . Firstclass Snider rifles,' quite as good as new, could lately be bought at Zanzibar at 13s. a piece." Cloves will smell as sweet though these rifles have done their work, and though a year's cultivation of the Pemba clove-gardens has soaked up the blood of 50,000 human beings far away inland, where no one seems inclined to interfere with the Arab slave-driver. One speaks plainly, because those who are acquainted with East Africa-and I am privileged to know most of them-see that all is drifting to our own embarrassment and discredit, and to the slavetraders' certain gain. I suppose we are anti-slavers to a man in this country, but never did men hold on more vexatiously to the "wrong end of the stick" in trying to follow our national instinct. Take, for instance, this case of Pemba, which I harp upon because the evil could be stopped as easily as we could deal with a rebellion in the Isle of Man, were we so minded. Our Government has been urged again and again to compel the Sultan of Zanzibar to abolish the status of slavery there; authorities, headed by Sir John Kirk, insist on its advisability and feasibility; the Arabs themselves are quite prepared to be told so; but, rather than interfere, this hideous loss of life must go on! As to the "stick"-has it a "right end," and if so, can we get hold of it? The direction in which to seek it has been pointed out more or less practically to-day by Cardinal Lavigerie and Captain. Cameron, and, with all the enthusiasm of his nature, by General Gordon, too, whilst he was Governor of the Soudan. "Don't content yourself with snipping off twigs; go in at the roots:" in a word, follow the oppressor into Central Africa, rally the oppressed, and help them to turn him out. A very remarkable and detailed scheme has been hands by Captain F. D. Lugard, D.S.O. Norfolk Regt. * Blue Book (Africa) No. 10 (1888), p. 26. placed in my Dealing with the same subject as that which Cardinal Lavigerie and Captain Cameron have advocated. It comes to the front rather late in the day, for the simple reason that it was drawn up by a wounded officer, who took the side of these Arab-stricken natives in the southern slavepreserve of Africa just as Gordon risked his life for them to the north. His propositions were indited amongst the poor creatures who go to dig and delve in Pemba, and it takes time for letters to reach home from Central Africa. It has, however, this special merit. The writer was and is on the spot, and engaged in the work he wishes to extend; moreover, he has learnt the language, taught the natives discipline, and so far gained their confidence that he has already led an army of five thousand against their oppressors. Cast down physically for the moment by being shot in the chest and through both arms in leading the assault upon an Arab stockade, he was at the same time mightily rallied in spirit by the receipt of Lord Salisbury's speech made in the House of Lords on the 6th of July 1888, which I will quote briefly from the Times' report. Referring to the endeavours of the African Lakes Company, who were in collision with the Arabs at Karonga, the Prime Minister deprecated the idea of this country lending any armed assistance to such efforts. At the same time, he paid a welldeserved compliment to our countrymen in Africa. "I think that the religious and commercial operations on Lake Nyassa form a spectacle upon which Englishmen can look with pride; yet it is one of those achievements which our race has formed, and will sustain, rather by the action of the individuals of whom the State is composed, than by the political machinery of the State. . . . it is one of those tasks which must and will be carried through by the individual Englishmen who have undertaken it. . . . . We have to fight with a collection of all the scum of humanity that is found over that vast territory which is governed principally by Arabs of the sort with whom we have dealt in the Soudan, who combine the grossest cruelty with a species of fanaticism. country will not abandon the task to which she has once put her hand, but she will carry it through successfully and to a triumphant issue by the proper action and the enthusiasm of her individual citizens." .... This Such words don't often reach men in Africa, and when they do, they are a better tonic than quinine. Captain Lugard assumes that the Zambesi and Shiré rivers will be kept open in spite of attempts on the part of the Portuguese to close them. Lord Salisbury has promised this again and again to those who-whether missionaries or traders-have ventured half a million. pounds sterling to undermine the slave trade around the great cistern, Lake Nyassa, which is reached by these rivers. Sir James Fergusson has not been slow to reiterate the assurance as occasion required, particularly in his Ayr speech, just before the Govan election. Briefly, Captain Lugard would suggest two small steamers, the one to be placed on Lake Nyassa, the other on Lake Tanganyika, which lies to the orth of it. This is physically feasible enough for ten years a British steam vessel has been on the one lake, and for five years on the other. The African Lakes Company (whose battles Captain Lugard has been fighting against the Arabs in their attempts to destroy the English stations) would see that the ships were conveyed by their own transport vessels plying between the sea and the lakes. This done, Captain Lugard would have several military officers stationed at the north end of Nyassa. These would undertake to train the natives to defend themselves, and to re-open and keep open the already constructed "Stevenson" road between the two lakes. quote his own words: То "Africa is divided, north and south, by the waterway of the great lakes. It is from the western side of this waterway that the great supplies of slaves are brought, together with the districts close around the lake shores; these are exported to Arabia and the great centres of demand for slaves from the east coast. If this waterway be dominated, the slave trade receives a crushing blow in its very origin. The passage across the lake is limited, for the most part, to well-known crossings. No smaller vessels than big seagoing canoes (at the easier fords) or dhows can attempt the passage. Let the waters of the great lakes be proclaimed free, and the deportation of slaves illegal. To such a manifesto the Sultan of Zanzibar should easily be induced to subscribe [see proclamation before given.] Let every dhow or canoe captured containing slaves be confiscated and destroyed; they are very difficult indeed to replace on these waters, and the owners might be rendered liable to have their remaining dhows also confiscated if the ownership were clearly proved. Let the Stevenson road from Nyassa to Tanganyika be held and patrolled by a small military force, having stockaded positions close to either lake and able to co-operate with the steamers on the lake. Thanks to the steamer traffic already on the lake there is no lack of stokers and engineers, mostly of the best fighting material, on is shores." Captain Lugard goes most voluminously into every detail of proposed expenditure, pay of officers, cost of steamers, enlistment of a few Ghoorkhas (whose value he so well knows), pensions to the wounded, pay to the natives, and in fact everything down to the cost per annum of oil for the engines! Such details will be invaluable if some rich man, willing and anxious to do good service, will look into them, but one can only abstract a few figures. The cost of the steamer, with steam up, on Nyassa would be £2500, and of that on Tanganyika £4140. "The maintenance of each steamer I would estimate as follows:Fuel, say, 20 working days per month, at 98. per day = per year Salary of British crew (1 captain, 1 senior, and 1 Salary of native crew (eight) Oil, 10 gallons per mensem, @ 58. (£30); mate rials for repairs, &c. (£30) Replacements as above of men time expired invalided, £100 0 0 500 0 0 40 0 0 60 66 0 0 acci 68 Do. do. 54 0 0 £820 0 0 |