'Further Papers respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa and the System Pursued for its Suppression' [‎76r] (19/50)

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round that she
.g Officers have
ently seaworthy-
Survey annexed
•der.
ommander,
:ip " Daphn
Commander in
hne," do hereby
y of May, 1869,
name unknown,
Ive persons, five
le had fifty-two
mmander,
,ip " Daphne."
June 7, 1869.
;hip " Daphne,"
deans.
WARD,
Commissioner.
mst 30, 1869.
ury to state, for
.ttention of this
respecting the
n captures made
r concur in the
1AMILTON.
mber 6, 1869,
'y to transmit to
our letter of the
tely captured by
o the Admiralty
with regard to
these captures, and they will be prepared to take steps for carrying out his suggestions on
learning the opinion of Lord Clarendon on the subject.
I am, &c
(Signed) GEO. A. HAMILTON;
Inclosure 1 in No. 10.
Report by Mr. Rothery respecting Dhows lately Captured by Her Majesty's ships "Peterel"
and " Nymphe."
To the Right Hon the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.
May it please your Lordships,
IN obedience to your Lordships' commands I have perused and considered the
documents herewith returned, consisting of a letter from the Honourable Charles Spring
Rice, dated the Foreign Office, 21st of July ultimo, transmitting copy of two despatches
of the 21st and 22nd of May last respectively, with their inclosures in original from John
Kirk, Esq., the Acting British Consul at Zanzibar, reporting the proceedings which had
taken place in the Vice-Admiralty Court established in that island in the cases of two slave
dhows captured and destroyed by Her Majesty's ships "Peterel" and "Nymphe"
respectively, on suspicion of being engaged in the Slave Trade.
In transmitting these papers Mr. Spring Rice states that Lord Clarendon would be
glad to receive any observations which your Lordships' legal adviser upon Slave Trade
matters may have to offer upon the ca&es to which the papers relate. He adds that in one
of the cases that destroyed by the " Nymphe," where the vessel belonged to the Governor
of Moubas, judgment had been given in the Vice-Admiralty Court against the captors, and
that Lord Clarendon fears that if the practice of destroying vessels suspected of being
engaged in the Slave Trade which now prevails to a great extent on the East Coast of
Africa is continued, not only will it give rise to large pecuniary claims on Her Majesty's
Government, but in some instances vessels may be destroyed, and their owners, from not
knowing where their case will be adjudicated, may be unable to obtain a hearing and
defend their property, and that this injustice will be done to honest traders, a state of
things, he observes, which it is on every account the object of Her Majesty's Government
to avoid.
The first of Mr. Kirk's despatches, that of the 21st of May, relates to the capture by
the " Peterel," of which he states, that he had as yet received no official information, but
at the express desire of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the evidence of the master and supercargo
of the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. had been taken before the Acting Consul on the 12th and 15th of May last.
According to this evidence, and the other documents forwarded in Mr. Kirk's despatch, the
dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. was the property of Abdulla-bin-Alarve, a Dolab, then lately deceased, who is
described by another witness as having for many years dealt largely with Messrs. Oswald
and Co., whose agent at Zanzibar was also the agent for winding up Abdulla's estate.
The dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. , it seems, had sailed from Zanzibar with a crew of twenty sailors, of whom
six were freemen and fourteen slaves. Some of the slaves, by the master's account, had
been with him on former voyages. They were supplied by the owner and received a little
pay; the freemen had been engaged by the master himself. There were also ten passengers,
one of whom, a girl, was the supercargo's domestic slave, who had come to him, as he
said, with his wife at the time of their marriage, and had been bought many years
previously.
The dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. had a cargo of 500 kegs of powder, 85 bales of American cloth, 5 bundles
of kaniki, and 6 boxes of Kutch goods; the total value of which, as shown in a paper
inclosed by Mr. Kirk, and drawn up by Messrs. Oswald and Co.'s agent at Zanzibar, from
the statements of those on board, was 2,931 dollars 28 cents; in addition to which, the
passengers had goods of their own, valued at 105 dollars. In the same document, the
price of the vessel is given as 700 dollars. She had, it is said, a pass from the Sultan, and
was bound with her cargo and passengers for Madagascar, to buy ebony, hides, and
bees'-wax.
After a voyage of twelve or fourteen days, in the course of which the vessel stopped
at Quiloa and took in a few baskets of corn, she arrived at a place called Mosimbata near
Cape Delgado. Near this place she fell in with a steamer, apparently the " Peterel," whose
boat or boats boarded the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. about 9 a.m ., but on what day the accompanying papers
do not state.
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