ABSTRACT
DURING the past year the attention of the British public has been called to the question of East African slavery, and the system was found to have attained such a frightful magnitude, and to be attended with such horrors, that a large amount of indignation was excited in regard to it, and both platform and press denounced it in the strongest terms. True to her character, policy, and traditions, England no sooner saw the evil, than she began to bestir herself, and to set about bringing it to an end. An able, sympathetic, uncompromising foe to the system was appointed to investigate the matter, and to deal its death-blow. Sir Bartle Frere sailed to the Indian Ocean, where the evil prevailed, visited Zanzibar, Muscat, and other places engaged in the traffic, and negotiated treaties with the Sultans of those places, by which those rulers consented to abolish the traffic in human flesh. The information that this had been accomplished was hailed with delight, a paean of triumph rang from one end of England to the other, and the people of this country are now congratulating themselves that the monster evil is at an end, and are dismissing the subject from their thoughts. For ourselves we heartily wish we could join in this ; but our knowledge of the traffic and those concerned in it, the utter want of confidence we feel in the mere signing of anti-slavery treaties by Muhammadan princes, and the fact that, while the foreign traffic is prohibited by the new treaty, slavery is still allowed to exist in Africa, prevents our participating as fully as we could wish, in the exultation felt by our countrymen in this last achievement of British diplomacy against the slave-trade in Eastern Africa. That a grand stride in the right direction has been made; that Sir Bartle Frere has done all that a man of consummate abilities and implacable hatred to slavery could do under the circumstances; that, indeed, everything has been done which, diplomatically considered, it may be deemed right for the British government to do, we are prepared to admit; but that East African slavery has been destroyed—that the question has been finally settled, we venture to say is not the case. The evil still lives, “ cabined, cribbed, confined,” it is true; but there it is—a purulent imposthume, over which a healthy skin appears to have grown, but which is certain sooner or later to break out again, and to give us as much, if not more, trouble than ever. This must be so in the very nature of things, and it will be so till the disease has been probed to the very core, and that core has been torn out by its roots. It is not a pleasant thing to be told that there is more fighting to do after we have doffed our armour, the song of victory has been sung, and we are receiving the congratulations of our friends ; but it is our duty to do so in the present instance, for slavery is still preying at the heart of Africa. It is important to keep the knowledge of this fact alive, and it is therefore that we feel called upon to write this chapter. It will be sufficient, however, under present circumstances, and for the present purpose, to place the main facts and the leading features of the system before the reader, without entering into the innumerable details associated therewith.
