CAPTURE OF AN ARAB SLA VE DHOW. 621 



depicts with such graphic power, to another, the horrors of which the Sul- 

 tan of Zanzibar would willingly prolong, for the sake of the accursed gains 

 which he and his chiefs have so long derived from the traffic in slaves, although 

 it is the very root of the evil which is gnawing at the vitals of the prosperity 

 of his kingdom, and paralysing, by its seductive and benumbing influence, all 

 the effort and enterprise of his subjects, in developing the natural resources 

 of Central Africa, and in bringing down to the seaboard the commercial 

 wealth of the interior. The Special Correspondent of the " Daily Telegraph," 

 in a communication from Mahe, Seychelles, December 16, 1874, gives the 

 following harrowing details, in connection with the capture of an Arab slave 

 dhow : — 



" The last batch of slaves rescued from Arab clutches arrived at Seychelles 

 on Sunday, the 23rd August, 1874. They were re-captured by H.M.S. Vul- 

 ture — the same ship, by the way, that so recently conveyed the remains of 

 Livingstone from the continent to Zanzibar. The Vulture was steaming into 

 Majungel, a post on the east coast of Madagascar, when a large dhow was 

 made out inshore of the ship. When the Vulture was near enough, a boat, 

 in charge of a young officer, was sent on board the Arab, whose true character, 

 and the nature of his cargo, were soon made known. On going below the 

 men found a framework of bamboo constructed on each side of the hold, 

 ranging fore and aft, in which two hundred and thirty-eight human beings 

 were packed, tier upon tier, like bottles in a rack. The occupants of each 

 tier were placed in the closest personal contact with each other — so much so, 

 in fact, that, to use the men's homely phrase, they really ' were stowed away 

 like herrings in a cask.' When taken out and placed upon the deck, their 

 limbs were useless ; they were seized with vertigo, and fell from sheer inability 

 to stand. Some were found in a truly shocking condition. One or two young 

 children were found crushed to death. The lower tier had been laid upon 

 the sand ballast and was half buried. One poor woman really was buried, 

 with the exception of her face ; her mouth was full of sand, and when taken 

 out was on the point of suffocation. The mortality among a batch of negroes 

 must be sometimes frightful, not only on board the dhows, but also during 

 the journey down from the interior. There was a woman among this lot who, 

 if her statement is to be credited, was the only survivor of a numerous band. 

 Six months since she roamed as free as air in her native village in the middle 

 of Africa. The Arabs went with fire and sword ; the village was burnt, and 

 the greater number of the women and children were made prisoners. Then 

 commenced a weary march of four months' duration. Fresh accessions of 

 slaves were made as they passed along on their way to the coast. Manacled 

 women fell by the way side, and being unable to travel, were left to die in 

 the jungle. Young children withered like plucked leaves, and the Arabs, to 

 these more merciful, struck off their heads and threw them aside. The woman 



