Page 188 - Gulf Precis (III)_Neat

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invested in slaves, whose net earnings form, in Zanzibar, as common an investment for
their master's spare capital as house property in Europe ? Among the borrowers are
Arabs in Uniayembi, who arc set down as owing £57,000. It is certain that every one of
these men will take slaves as a part of the returns for his adventure, and, whether the
Indian capitalist is aware of it or not, it is certain that he will be repaid for his advances of
European and American goods, in part at least, from the direct profits of slave-trade.
Again, the Sultan's customs are farmed by one of the most eminent Indian houses,
and no doubt, as is customary elsewhere, the profits and responsibilities arc not confined
to one house, but are shared by other houses in friendly correspondence with the principal.
Specially salaried establishments are rarely employed in such cases at the outports— one*
or more of the leading firms at an outport agrees to keep the accounts and pass documents,
almost all cash payments being settled at Zanzibar—slaves are a considerable item at most
ports, and everywhere are a direct and regular source of customs revenue, and it is not only
the Indian trader who farms the customs, but his Indian agents at the outposts, who are
thus directly implicated. It is their business to know of every slave landed or shipped, ami
thus to become accomplices in all the schemes for evading the exertions of British officials
and the British Government to stop the trade. The collection and concealment of the slave
cargo before shipment; the misleading the British cruiser ; the running the cargo, and its
concealment at Zanzibar or elsewhere on its way to its final destination in Arabia, or othe^
distant regions ; and these are matters of everyday concern and business—interest to the
Indian Agent of the Indian farmer of the Sultan's customs. He cannot help being aware of
them and taking part in them, at least by concealment of what he knows, ard as an
accomplice after the fact. If true to his employer's interests he cannot help siding with
the slave-trader, and against the British Government and British officers employed in
stopping it.
More than this, if the Customs’ Agent does his duty hr. must take an active part in
considering whether this slave is too weakly to be shipped, or that one so near death as to
entitle the importer to be excused payment of customs, provided the wretched slave be left
to die on the beach, and the importer does not attempt to smuggle him past the Custom­
house.
These, be it remembered, are the everyday duties of every Custom-house Agent at
every port from Cape Delgado to Magadosha, and the Custom-house Agent is, with few
if any exceptions, one of the most respectable Indian traders at the place.
Such being the plain undoubted facts of the case, it seems to me almost superfluous to
inquire what proportion of Indian traders have any direct dealings in slaves, and buy or
sell them on their own account, either openly or under cant terms as “ Black Pepper," or
“ soiled ivory." The records of the Consulate and Vice-Admiralty show that instances of
British-Indian subjects committing themselves, by direct participation in the slave-trade,
are not unfrequent. Two such cases occurred during my stay at Zanzibar. But it is not
necessary to refer to such instances as establishing the fact that no one who trades at
Zanzibar as the Indian trades can be absolved from something more than a silent spectator's
share in the practical cruelties and iniquities of the slave-trade as now carried on.
Many of the Indians, I believe, to be as worthy of confidence in all their other commer-
cial relations as any merchant in Her Majesty's dominions, but it is impossible to deal either
as buyer or seller on the Indian system of advances, with men whose ordinary business
is slave-dealing, and not to share their profits ; nor can I see where any clear line of
distinction in this respect can be drawn between the man, who in express terms shares the
slaving adventure from beginning to end, and he who advances wholesale a cargo of cotton
goods to be paid for by the slave-dealer, when his slaving adventure is terminated and the
profits realized.
As far as I could judge, after repeatedly discussing the matter very fully and freely
with the most respectable of the Indian merchants, there are very few of them who would
not be liable to prosecution under the laws against participation in slave-trade, if those laws
were rigidly enforced ; where the moral elements of guilty participation are absent no
Government would initiate a prosecution, but there can hardly be a doubt that a large
proportion of the rich and influential Indian community at Zanzibar is liable to be dragged
into Court to answer a criminal charge of aiding and abetting slave-dealing, whenever an
accident might give to malicious or venal men a knowledge of the remoter ramifications 01
an everyday mercantile transaction.
If the general opinion of well-informed persons may be trusted, the Hindu Indian
traders (Bhattias and Banians) less frequently commit themselves by direct slave-dea ing
than the Mahomedans (Khojahs, Mehmons, and Bohras), and I heard of arrangements ma e
by a Bhattia firm for alleviating the sufferings of slaves on arrival at Kilwa Karinja, e
great emporium of slave export by a permanent dole of food and water. But at this same
place, the leading member of a Bhattia firm, acting as His Highness Custom-mas •
repeatedly assured me that no slaves were exported from his port, nor any accoun P
of them, though, as I told him, 1 had seen at Zanzibar the abstracts of the accounts, an