THE SLA VE SUPPLY. 461 



not exercise increased vigilance, necessitating 

 exposure of their men and neglect of other more 

 important duties, when their labours were so 

 likely to be made futile. And as very little prize 

 money was followed by a very large amount of 

 correspondence, slaver-hunting appeared as un- 

 desirable to them as to the officers of the French 

 squadron on the West Coast of Africa. 



At Zanzibar, where the French Consul, or in 

 his absence the first 1 Droginan ' (like all consuls 

 here, their office is rather political than commer- 

 cial), could fine and imprison an offender, and even 

 ship off a merchant skipper to the nearest port, the 

 English functionary was a magistrate absolutely 

 without magisterial or criminal jurisdiction. He 

 could not deport an Indian convicted of slave-deal- 

 ing. Whilst the Arab Courts were not allowed 

 jurisdiction over British subjects, the latter, un- 

 less merchant seamen ashore, were not liable to 

 be arrested for felony. All this might easily 

 have been remedied by extending eastward the 

 British Order in Council for the exercise of power 

 and jurisdiction by English functionaries (e.g. Con- 

 suls for the Levant), in the Ottoman Dominions 

 (June 19, 1844), and by adding power ashore to 

 Article 124 of Consular Instructions, making of- 

 fences on the high seas cognizable by the Consul. 



