Indian subjects of Great Britain, engaged in trading and agriculture, had abandoned their possessions and fled to Zanzibar. British missionary settlements had been destroyed, and some of the missionaries who could not escape were besieged in their stations. Lord Salisbury, who had made the British Government a partner in the German scheme for the conquest of the most productive regions of the African Continent, accepted Prince Bismarck's proposal to fight the slave-traders and restore European prestige by blockading the coast. Portugal, having important colonial interests to conserve, and Italy, ambitious of extending her influence in East Africa, were induced to promise assistance with their war-vessels in the naval blockade. France has no important colonial interests in this part of the continent, but she has some commerce with the African tribes, which must suffer by a blockade. The Arab dhows, when chased, have been accustomed to display the French flag, which usually has saved them from capture. The slave trade fell away in consequence of the abolition of slavery in American countries, the co-operation of the Sultan of Zanzibar in the efforts to suppress the traffic, and the vigilance of the English patrol off the eastern coast of Africa. Recently, however, there has been an increase in the traffic. This fact has been ascribed to the establishments of the French in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, owing to the increase of French shipping in these seas, and the facility thus given to slavers to escape under false colors. The slave-raids are now attended with more cruelty, destruction of life, and desolation than they were when the supply of slaves was more abundant and not so remote from the sea-coast. The export of slaves is variously estimated from 60,000 to 180,000 a year. At least ten lives are sacrificed in bringing one slave to market. A large proportion of the slaves that are taken die on the march or on shipboard, and the people who are not fit for slaves-the aged, the women, and the children-are either butchered by the raiders or left to starve. Large areas, once populous, have been stripped of inhabitants. The English were not entirely sincere in their efforts to uproot slavery and put an end to the traffic in men, and the Germans were still less so, for the laws that the British Government had compelled the Sultan to enact, prohibiting the holding or hiring of slaves in the Zanzibar dominions, had, in the interest of Indian and British capitalists, been suffered to fall into desuetude, while the enterprise of the German East Africa Company was based upon slave-labor. The Belgian Government, through its consul at Zanzibar, recruited slaves for the Congo Free State, paying their masters their market value, while the slaves received an equal sum for the term of their indentures. The French Government refused the request of the German and English Governments for M. liberty to search French vessels, adhering to the principle of international law that the right of search can be exercised only in case of an effective blockade, which would require three times the naval force that the parties to the blockade were disposed to employ. Goblet subsequently yielded when the suppression of the slave-trade was represented to him as the object of the blockade, conceding the right to search ships and boats flying French colors that were suspected of carrying slaves, but still insisted that the search for contraband of war and its seizure should be conditional on the blockade being made effective. To show its sincerity in desiring to stop the slave-traffic, the French Government sent a vessel to co-operate in the blockade. Admiral Deinhard, of the German blockading fleet, and Admiral Fremantle, of the cooperating English squadron, declared the blockade of the coast for the purpose of preventing the exportation of slaves and the importation of arms and munitions of war in a proclamation issued on December 2. The German fleet undertook to watch the coast south of the Wanga to Lindi, and the English fleet from the Wanga northward to the island of Lamu. The English East Africa Company conciliated the Arabs in Mombassa by paying for 1,500 runaway slaves who had been harbored by the missionaries. The German squadron, which bombarded the coast opposite Zanzibar before the vessels took up their stations in the blockade, consisted of the frigate "Leipzig," the corvettes "Carola" and "Sophie," the cruisers "Möwe" and "Schwalbe," and the dispatchboat "Pfeil." The German land force at Bagamoyo was besieged by the Arab leader, Bushire. The Germans strengthened their position at that point and at Dar-es-Salaam by building stone forts, and prepared to recover the other harbors by force of arms under protection of the blockade. They recruited native soldiers, who were employed in ineffectual operations against the coast tribes at Sadani and elsewhere, thereby closing the caravan routes and bringing ruin upon the British Indians that they had induced to resume trade, many of whom were plundered by the black soldiers in the employ of the German company. Bushire, who had 2,500 men armed with breech-loaders, captured Bagamoyo, and cut off the retreat of the Germans, who were besieged in their block-houses till December 7, when the shells of the war-vessels compelled the Arabs to withdraw. The town was laid in ruins. The German vessels bombarded Lindi, Mikandini, Tanga, Pangani, and other coast towns, destroying much property belonging to East Indians, and causing the owners to be detained as prisoners by the Arabs. The Portuguese authorities on December 10 announced the extension of the blockade and the prohibition of the importation of arms from the Rovuma to Pomba Bay, in 13° of south latitude. INDEX TO THIS VOLUME. A complete index to the preceding twelve volumes is issued separately. Adventists, Seventh-Day, 5. Afghanistan, 6, 439. Africa, Southern, map of, 123. Agriculture, United States Depart- Alcott, Amos Bronson, sketch and portrait, 10. Arthur Kill Bridge, 298. Art. See FINE ARTS. Atlantic Ocean, hydrography, 58. Alcott, Louisa May, sketch and Austria-Hungary, 67. Ayres, Romeyn Beck, sketch, 621. Babylonian documents, 30. Beds, folding, 81. Beech, Major, 2. Beggars, 134. Belden, David, sketch, 622. Belgium, 84. Bellew, Francis H. T., sketch, 623. Bessels, Emil, sketch, 623. Bevier troubles, 566. Bible Christian Connection, 546. Baden, Prince Ludwig Wilhelm, Bierly, W. R., nominated, 263. sketch, 659. Bagally, Sir Richard, sketch, 660. Baker, William E., sketch, 621. Baltic provinces, the, 727. Bigelow, G. E., nominated, 587. Black mountain expedition, 436. Boats, house, 416, et seq.; collaps- able, 93; submarine, 798. Bobbett, Albert, sketch, 623. Bodley, Rachel L., sketch, 624. Bogart, William Henry, sketch, 624. Boggs, Charles Stuart, sketch, 624. Book of the Dead, 31. Books. See LITERATURE. Booth, James Curtis, sketch, 624. Botkin, J. D., nominated, 461. Boulangism, 347. Boundary, of the Netherlands, 87. Bourn amendment, the, 715. Boyce, James Petigru, sketch, 625. Bremen, incorporation of, 372. Bridges. See ENGINEERING. Brigham, David, sketch, 625. 44. Brown, John H. H., sketch, 625. Buddington, Sidney O., sketch, 625. Bulkley, John W., sketch, 626. Burleigh, E. C., nominated, 510. Butler, David, nominated, 587. Cable, submarine, 574. Caine, John T., nominated, 882. California, Lower, 547. Calvinistic Methodist Church, 705. Canterbury, Convocation of, 15. Cape Colony, 122. Carey, J. M., renominated, 849. Carskadon, T. R., nominated, 842. Caves of the troglodytes, 33. ment, 255. Cephissus, discoveries at, 26. Cheever, Byron W., sketch, 626. illustration, 848. Chili, 151. Corliss, George Henry, sketch, 628. Correnti, Cesare, sketch, 660. Chinese, labor and immigration, 62, Council Bluffs, 162. Doyle, Sir Francis H., sketch, 661. Drew, Thomas, sketch, 631. Dwight, William, sketch, 632. Dynamite plot, 397. Earle, William H., 242. Eckles, Delane R., sketch, 633. Egypt Exploration fund, 28. Elliott, Ezekiel Brown, sketch, 633. Emancipation in Brazil, 105. Engineering, 297. Falkland Islands, 37. Farmers' Conventions, 460, 618. 301. Feyen-Perrin, François, sketch, Gold, 526. 662. Fiji, 67. Finances of the United States, 782. Fleming, A. B., nominated, 842. 341. Floquet Cabinet, 346. Fort Wayne, 164. Foster, Joshua, sketch, 634. Francis, David R., nominated, 566. 13. Free Church of Scotland, 704. Froude, James A., quoted, 7. Golden rose, the, 716. ington, 375. Gray, Asa, sketch and portrait, 380. Greaves, James P., 11. Green, Seth, sketch and portrait, 404. Greey, Edward, sketch, 636. Guiana, British, 839: French, 840. Hager, Albert David, sketch, 636. Fuller, Melville Weston, sketch and Harden, J. W., nominated, 263. International Congress, 87. Langley, Samuel P., his address, 44. Language question, the, 86. International Law, Institute of, 759. Lanza, Gen., 3. Lassalle, Charles, sketch, 642. Latham, Robert G., sketch. 664. Ireland. See Great Britain, 882. Leboeuf, Edmond, sketch and por- Irving, Roland Duer, sketch, 639. Ithaca incorporated, 608. Iztaccihuatl, ascent of, 550. Jacksonville, 165. Houzeau, Jean Charles, sketch, 663. Hughes, J. S., nominated, 441. 461. Hungary. See AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. Hutton, Richard Holt, quoted, 7. Ibach, Lawrence J., sketch, 639. Jerusalem, walls of, 31. Jesuits' estates settlement, 710. Johnson, J. C., nominated, 764. Juste, Theodore, sketch, 664. Kansas, 457. Kelly, William, sketch, 641. Key, Sir Astley C., sketch, 664. Labiche, Eugéne M., sketch, 664. Labor, United States Department Identification and description, per- Labrador, 464; map of, 465. Iceland, 268. Idaho, 419. trait, 472. Lecompte, Samuel D., sketch, 642. Lewis, Henry Carvil, sketch, 648. Levi, Leone, sketch, 664. Lincoln, Thomas B., sketch, 643. Loan associations, 245. Lozier, Clemence Sophia, 501. Lutherans, 502. McAllister, William K., sketch, McCarter, Ludlow, sketch, 644. McIntosh, John B., sketch, 644. Maine, Sir Henry J. S., 665. Mantineia, excavations at, 27. Mars, 53. Mars, map of, 512. Mars, recent studies of, 511. 665. Martinique, 840. |