SLAVE DHOWS AND GUNBOATS. 
21 
and level the whole town. Before this fleet received 
sailing orders, an investigation proved its presence off 
Zanzibar would he unwarrantable, and the whole affair 
was settled by the German Consul being requested to 
return at once to Berlin.* 
We were entertained with great cordiality on board 
H.M.S. Turquoise by Captain Woodward and the rest 
of the officers, who had their cabins laden with Burmese 
curiosities, obtained the previous year when they took 
part in the expedition to Mandalay. The Turquoise , 
a particularly comfortable ship, is one of two British 
gunboats now engaged in suppressing the slave trade 
at this station. A reward is paid for each slave dhow 
captured, varying according to the measurement of the 
dhow or the number of slaves on board, and it is left 
to the option of the officers to reckon it at ^io per 
ton or ^5 per slave. The system of dhow catching, 
however, is not regarded in Zanzibar as in any way 
effectual, and is practically held to do more harm than 
good, as the real sufferings of the poor slaves occur in 
their transport from the interior, and once arrived at 
the coast, their troubles would be over were it not for 
the presence and activity of the gunboats. I heard a 
few hideous stories, from the missionaries, of shocking 
cruelties being practised on the island of Pemba, in¬ 
cluding that of burying a slave alive, but, in nine cases 
out of ten, after a slave is purchased he becomes valu¬ 
able property and is therefore treated with kindness. 
* By a treaty made between Germany and Great Britain in 1SS6, Capa 
.and the whole of Kilima-njaro was admitted to belong to the German E.A. 
Company. 
