4G2 



THE SLAVE SUPPLY. 



Thus, despite Order upon Ordinance, Asia was 

 supplied by the whole slave-coast of Eastern 

 Africa, without hardly the decency of conceal- 

 ment. Boys and girls might be seen on board 

 every native craft freshly trapped in the inner 

 wilds, unable to speak a word of any language 

 but the Zangian, and bearing upon their heads 

 the trade-marks of the Hindu Banyan. The 

 commerce was openly carried on by aliens sailing 

 under British protection. Kidnapping was com- 

 mon and daring, as about Lagos and Badagry. 

 Scarcely a vessel manned by crews from Sur 

 or Pva'as el Khaymah, the greatest ruffians of 

 these pirate seas, left Zanzibar city or mainland 

 without stealing a few negros or negrets. By 

 the temptations of a bottle of rum or of some 

 decoy girl, they were enticed into the house or 

 on board, and they suddenly found themselves 

 safe under hatches : even Arabs, men and wo- 

 men, have been carried off in mistake by these 

 inveterate thieves. A child here worth from 

 £1 os. to £3 would fetch in Persia £14 to £20 ; 

 hence the practice. And the anti-slave export- 

 ation treaties became exactly worth their weight 

 in words, because the sword was known to be 

 sheathed. 



The slaves on Zanzibar Island are roundly 



