"معاملة العبيد واحتجازهم من قبل الكوتشيين في زنزبار" [و‎‎١‎١‎٦] (٦٣/٢٠)

17
act on the part of His Highness, a portrait of the Queen should be presented to
him by the British Government, I transmit to you
• LettOT from Foreign Office herewith, for the information of Your Excellency's
to Kr from India oV w Go'erament, a copy of correspondence* with the
Foreign Office, 6th June 1867. Foreign Office on the subject of the proposed gift,
from which my views will be gathered. I have no
intimation of the course which Lord Stanley purposes to pursue.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) Stafford H. Northcote.
Extract Bombay Political Consultation, 31st March 1868.
No. 2144.
No. 399/84 of 1867.
Political Department.
Henry A. Churchill , Esq., C .B., Political Agent and Her Majesty's Consul,
Zanzibar, to C. Gonne , Esq., Secretary to the Government of Bombay.
Sj r> 22d December 1867.
In a Despatch addressed by the Right Hon. Lord Stanley to Dr. Seward,
of which I beg leave to transmit to you a copy, for the information of the Right
Honourable the Governor in Council, I am requested to inform Her Majesty's
Government " whether any of Her Majesty's Indian subjects in Zanzibar are in the,
" habit of holding slaves," and am told that " it would be satisfactory to know that
« the steps taken by Colonel Rigby, in releasing a large number of slaves held in
" bondage by British Indian subjects, have proved effective, to prevent a con-
« tinuance of the abuse by Her Majesty's Indian subjects of British laws for the
" suppression of the slave trade."
2. Already, on my arrival at Zanzibar, I had learnt, with no little concern, the
fact that, although Colonel Rigby had succeeded in emancipating all the slaves in
the possession of the natives of India established in the dominions of the Sultan
of Zanzibar, upwards of one thousand two hundred slaves were still held in
bondage by natives of that country, and that they enjoyed this privilege because
they were under the protection of His Highness Seyd Majid. It struck me as
being a circumstance worthy of notice that the Sultan should call himself the
best friend of the British Government, and yet assist natives of India, by the
protection he extended to them, in frustrating the efforts of the British Govern
ment to put a stop to the slave trade, and I did not fail to draw His Highness's
attention to this anomaly. I told His Highness that it was a matter of much
importance that the existence of this state of things should cease, and that I
should soon do myself the honour to speak to him seriously on the subject;
but, from His Highness's evasive reply, I felt that he was not over anxious
to discuss the question with me, and as I was desirous, on my part, to read up
the instructions, and see how far I should be borne out by Government in pro
moting the liberation of the said slaves, I was not sorry to put off, for a while,
the discussion.
3. I learnt, from an attentive perusal of the instructions,—
1st. That, up to Colonel Rigby's departure from Zanzibar, no native of India
had dared to possess a slave, after the sweeping emancipation pro
secuted by that energetic Officer.
2d. That Colonel Rigby had received the approval of Government in all his
proceedings with regard to the slave trade and the emancipation of the
slaves above alluded to.
3d. That it was after Colonel Rigby's departure that natives of India were
allowed to plaCe themselves under the Sultan's protection.
From other sources I ascertained that the natives of India under the Sultan's
protection, in whose country domestic slavery had ceased to exist for a con-
11532. E