ABSTRACT
THE at his disposal to do more than send an occasional cruiser to show the flag north of the Mozambique Channel, and the authorities at home were even less interested in the suppression of the Slave Trade on the East Coast than they were on the West. Not more than one or two ships a year visited even the most southerly of the Portuguese possessions, and not until 1843 did a ship go as far north as Zanzibar. As has been seen, until Napoleon's death it was laid down in the Standing Instructions for successive commanders-in-chief that their prime duty was to guard the island of St. Helena. Mter that the main interest lay in the formation of a naval base at Simon's Town for the protection of the route to the east, since the importance of the Cape was viewed solely in relation to the valuable Indian, and later China, Trade. Seen thus, the coast of Africa was nobody's business. Of the odd dozen ships composing the Cape Squadron, one was always posted at Mauritius, another (usually the flagship) lay at the Cape, and the remainder were engaged in guarding St. Helena, refitting at Simon's Bay, or carrying mail and despatches from one point to another. It was only in the early 'forties that the problem of the Portuguese Slave Trade was seriously tackled.
