458 



THE SLAVE SUPPLY. 



government was depriving foreign powers. This 

 proceeding added jealousy to the ill-will with 

 which our c meddling and muddling 1 philan- 

 thropy was regarded. But both those chiefly 

 concerned — the slaver and anti-slaver — gained ; 

 for the former the price of his wares was kept up, 

 whilst the latter made not a little political capital 

 out of his position. Slave exportation might at 

 once have been crushed at head-quarters: Madrid 

 could have ended it in Cuba ; Lisbon, and Rio de 

 Janeiro, in Africa and in the Brazil ; it was, 

 however, judged best to let it die quietly, and to 

 make as much use as possible of its dying throes. 

 Some five years ago, after defying for a genera- 

 tion the squadrons of civilized Europe and the 

 United States, it perished of itself, and to-morrow 

 it would revive if the old conditions of its exist- 

 ence could be restored. 



The Zanzibar slave-depot is so situated that its 

 market was limited only by the extent of Western 

 Asia. Prom Ra'as Hafun to the Kilima-ni river 

 was gathered the supply for the Bed Sea, for the 

 Persian Gulf, for the Peninsula of Hindostan, 

 and for the extensive regions to the East. A 

 spirited trade was carried on, and few obstacles 

 were placed in its way. The Anglo-India Govern- 

 ment did not in this matter rival the zeal of the 



