ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 



377 



It was asserted by the late Colonel Hamerton, whose 

 local knowledge was extensive, that the average of 

 yearly import into the island of Zanzibar was 14,000 

 head of slaves,, the extremes being 9000 and 20,000. 

 The loss by mortality and desertion is 30 per cent, per 

 annum ; thus, the whole gang must be renewed between 

 the third and fourth year. 



By a stretch of power slavery might readily be 

 abolished in the island of Zanzibar, and in due time, 

 after the first confusion, the measure would doubtless 

 be found as profitable as it is now unpalatable to the 

 landed proprietors, and to the commercial body. A 

 M sentimental squadron," like the West African, would 

 easily, by means of steam, prevent any regular expor- 

 tation to the Asiatic continent. But these measures 

 would deal only with effects, leaving the causes 

 in full vigour; they would strike at the bole and 

 branches, the root retaining sufficient vitality to resume 

 its functions as soon as relieved of the pressure from 

 without. Neither treaty nor fleet would avail perma- 

 nently to arrest the course of slavery upon the sea- 

 board, much less would it act in the far realms of the 

 interior. At present the African will not work: the 

 purchase of predial slaves to till and harvest for him is 

 the great aim of his life. When a more extensive inter- 

 course with the maritime regions shall beget wants 

 which compel the barbarian, now contented with doing 

 nothing and having nothing, to that individual exertion 

 and that mutual dependency which render serfdom a 

 moral impossibility in the more advanced stages of 

 human society, — when man, now valueless except to 

 himself, shall become more precious by his labour than 

 by his sale, in fact an article so expensive that strangers 

 cannot afford to buy him, — then we may expect to wit- 

 ness the extinction of the evil. Thus, and thus only 



