BANYAN SLAVE TRADERS. 491 



their agents, perform the trading, or rather murdering ; and when slaves and 

 ivory are brought to the coast, the Arabs sell the slaves. The Banyans pocket 

 the price, and adroitly let the odium rest on their agents. As a rule, no tra- 

 velling Arab has money sufficient to undertake an inland journey. Those who 

 have become rich imitate the Banyans, and send their indigent countrymen 

 and slaves to trade for them. The Banyans could scarcely carry on their sys- 

 tem of trade were they not in possession of the custom-house, and had power 

 to seize all the goods that pass through it to pay themselves for debts. The 

 so-called Governors are appointed on their recommendation, and become mere 

 trade agents. When the Arabs in the interior are assaulted by the natives, 

 they never unite under a Governor as a leader ; for they know that defending 

 them, or concerting means for their safety, is no part of his duty. The Arabs 

 are nearly all in debt to the Banyans, and the Banyan slaves are employed in 

 ferreting out every trade transaction of the debtors ; and when watched by 

 Governors' slaves and custom-house officers, it is scarcely possible for even 

 this cunning, deceitful race to escape being fleeced. To avoid this, many 

 surrender all the ivory to their Banyan creditors, and are allowed to keep or 

 sell the slaves as their share of the profits. It will readily be perceived that 

 the prospect of in any way coming under the power of Banyan British sub- 

 jects at Zanzibar is very far from reassuring. 



" The packet above referred to was never more heard of, but a man called 

 Musa Kamaah had been employed to drive some buffaloes for me from the 

 coast, and od leaving Ujiji the same day the packet was delivered for trans- 

 mission, I gave him a short letter, dated May 1869, which he concealed on 

 his person, knowing that on its production his wages depended. He had 

 been a spectator of the plundering of my property by the Governor's slave, 

 Saloom, and received a share to hold his peace. He was detained for months 

 at Unyanyembe by the Governor, and even sent back to Ujiji on his private 

 business, he being ignorant all the while that Kamaah preserved the secret 

 letter. It was the only document of more than forty that reached Zanzibar. 

 It made known, in some measure, my wants, but my cheques on Bombay for 

 money were in the lost packet, and Ludha, the rich Banyan, was employed 

 to furnish, on credit, all the goods and advances of pay for the men required 

 in the expedition. Ludha is, perhaps, the best of all the Banyans at Zan- 

 zibar ; but he applied to Ali-bin-Salem, the brother of his agent, the Gover- 

 nor, to furnish two head men to conduct the goods and men to Ujiji, and 

 beyond it, wherever I might be then reported to be. He recommended 

 Shereef Bosher and Awathe as first and second conductors of the caravan. 

 Shereef, the Governor, and the Governor's brother, being ' birds of one 

 feather,' the consequences might have been foretold. No sooner did Shereef 

 obtain command than he went to one Muhamad Nassur, a Zanzibar-born 

 Banyan or Hindoo, and he advanced twenty-five boxes of soap and eight 



