510 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



the Zanzibar slave market, in June, 1866, when on his way to enter upon hi8 

 last journey, Dr. Livingstone says : — This is now almost the only spot in the 

 world where one hundred to three hundred slaves are daily exposed for sale 

 in the open market. This disgraceful scene I have several times personally 

 witnessed, and the purchasers were Arabians or Persians, whose dhows lay 

 anchored in the harbour ; and these men were daily at their occupation, 

 examining the teeth, gait, and limbs of the slaves, as openly as horse-dealers 

 engage in their business in England." 



According to Mr. Churchill, Consul at Zanzibar, the number of slaves 

 who passed through Zanzibar during the five years preceding September, 

 1867, would not be less than one hundred-and-fifteen thousand. Nor do 

 these figures represent the full extent of the horrible traffic. Dr. Livingstone 

 said — " Besides those actually captured, thousands are killed and die of their 

 wounds and famine, driven from the villages by the slave trade ; thousands 

 in internicene war, waged for slaves, with their own clansmen and neigh- 

 bours, slain by the lust for gain, which is stimulated by the slave purchasers. 

 The many skeletons we have seen amongst rocks and woods, by the little 

 pools, and along the paths of the wilderness, attest the awful sacrifice of 

 human life, which must be attributed, directly or indirectly, to this trade of 

 hell." Over and over again, Dr. Livingstone has told us, that more than 

 five times the number of human beings who reach the slave markets are sacri- 

 ficed. The indignant cry of Livingstone opened the eyes of our Government 

 to the fact that, in spite of the treaty of 1822, the great majority of the slaves 

 who passed through Zanzibar were sent to foreign parts. 



With the view of putting a stop to this terrible state of matters, Sir 

 Bartle Frere was sent by the English Grovernment to Zanzibar, with ample 

 powers accorded to him for bringing strong pressure to bear on the Sultan, in 

 enforcing and carrying out the wishes of the English Grovernment. The 

 Envoy of England was well qualified for the duty entrusted to him. 



At an early age he entered the Civil Service of India, in a humble posi- 

 tion, and at the end of thirty years he was President of Bombay. Mr. A. Gf. 

 Forster, in a recent work on Africa, says : — " His government has been most 

 successful ; and he was a man of vigorous understanding, strong tenacity of 

 purpose, a kindly disposition, a genial manner, and sympathy with suffering." 

 He was, as we have seen, a friend and correspondent of Dr. Livingstone, and 

 had heard the story of the wrongs and sufferings of the African people from 

 the great traveller himself. 



The Sultan of Zanzibar, very soon, was at first very unwilling to come 

 to terms, but as the Banyan traders, saw that the English Government were 

 in earnest, and immediately stopped sending slaves to Zanzibar, his eyes 

 were opened, and he submitted to the inevitable. During the negotia- 

 tions an English squadron, under the command of Admiral Cummings, 



