transport of slaves coastwise, from one portion of his dominions to another, and that His Highness should consent to the addition to the Treaty between Zanzibar and Great Britain of an Article authorizing the Commanders of British cruizers to seize and detain all vessels under the Zanzibar flag, engaged in the coasting Slave Trade, and carrying slaves. You will see from Colonel Rigby's despatch of the 26th of July, that the Sultan refused to accede to these proposals of Her Majesty's Government, alleging, as a reason, that the measures already carried out by Her Majesty's Consul for preventing Her Majesty's Indian subjects from holding slaves, had done great injury to the commerce of Zanzibar, and that if a total stop were put to the traffic in slaves it would be the ruin of his country. I have to instruct you to state to the Sultan that, although His Highness's revenue might in the first instance be injuriously affected by the prohibition to import slaves into Zanzibar from the mainland, Her Majesty's Government are convinced that such a measure, if carried into effect, would, in the end, be beneficial to his people. His Highness cannot be ignorant that the slaves imported into his territories are procured by raids made by slave-hunters on peaceable and unoffending towns and villages, at a great sacrifice of human life, and that by permitting the importation of slaves into his territories, and raising a revenue upon them, he encourages a system that entails great misery on a large portion of his fellow-creatures. His Highness is also aware that the British Government have laboured constantly and persistently to put a stop to this traffic, and he may be persuaded that they will continue their efforts in that direction until they have attained the object which they have in view. The attempt of Her Majesty's Government to suppress the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa must be, to a great extent, neutralized, so long as His Highness's subjects are permitted to engage in this coasting Slave Trade, and the importation of slaves into Zanzibar is encouraged. I have, therefore, to desire that you will repeat to His Highness the proposals I instructed Colonel Rigby to make to him with regard to the coasting trade in slaves, and the addition of an Article to the Treaty between Zanzibar and Great Britain for that purpose. Lieutenant-Colonel Pelly. SIR, No. 158. Mr. Layard to Lieutenant-Colonel Pelly. Foreign Office, October 1, 1862. WITH reference to Lord Russell's despatch of the 7th of June last, I am directed by his Lordship to transmit to you a copy of a letter addressed to the Secretary to the Admiralty from RearAdmiral Sir B. Walker, reporting the great increase of the Slave Trade in Zanzibar, which, it appears, is carried on without any remonstrance or interference on the part of the authorities of the Sultan. Her Majesty's Government had entertained the hope, from your despatch of the 13th of March last, that the Sultan was in earnest in his desire to put a stop to the export of slaves from his dom nions, but subsequent reports have not tended to confirm this impression. I have, therefore, to instruct you to call upon His Highness, and to state that Her Majesty's Government have heard with regret that the export of slaves is carried on to even a greater extent than heretofore, and that they can no longer suffer this iniquitous trafic to be continued with impunity, and that unless stringent measures are at once taken by His Highness to put a stop to it, Her Majesty's Government will be reluctantly obliged to compel the Sultan to observe the existing Treaties for the suppression of the export of slaves from his territories. &c. Lieutenant-Colonel Pelly. I am, A. H. LAYARD. PORTUGAL. No. 172.-Sir A. Magenis to Earl Russell.-(Received January 23.) MY LORD, Lisbon, January 15, 1862. WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch of 31st December last, I have the honour to inclose herewith a copy of the note which, in obedience to your Lordship's instructions, I addressed yesterday to M. d'Avila. Earl Russell. (Extract.) I have, &c. ARTHUR C. MAGENIS. (Inclosure.)—Sir A. Magenis to Senhor d'Avila. Lisbon, January 14, 1862. On the 28th of November last year I had the honour, in a con. versation with your Excellency, to bring unofficially to your notice a report from Her Majesty's Commissioner at the Cape of Good Hope, in which that gentleman refers to the alleged connivance of the Portuguese authorities in the export of slaves from the Portu. guese possessions on the East Coast of Africa. Since that date Her Majesty's Government have taken steps with the view to ascertain whether the statements contained in the Commissioner's report are well founded, and I am now instructed by Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to communicate to the Portuguese Government the substance of that report, as well as of information from Her Majesty's Consul at Zanzibar, and from the Admiral of Her Majesty's naval forces on the Cape station, which Her Majesty's Government regret to say confirm it. The accounts received from the East Coast of Africa during the past year all tend to show that the Slave Trade continues to be carried on to a very considerable extent. The principal traffic from the Portuguese possessions to the northward of 13° south latitude is in slaves, who are shipped at a cost of about 30 dollars a-head. At Ibo, Point Pangane, Matemo, Lambuo, Quisanga, and Quirimba, from 5,000 to 6,000 slaves were seen ready for embarkation. At the Settlement at Pamba Bay, established by Captain Romero in 1858, the Cape Commissioner is informed that there is no traffic carried on except in slaves who are kidnapped from the tribes in the neighbourhood, and sent to Ibo in the dhows employed in provisioning Pamba Bay. This traffic is so profitable to the Portuguese officials at the port of Ibo, and the successive Governors so speedily acquire a competence from the bribes they receive for permitting it, that they appear to care for no representations made respecting it. Au instance is known in which the Governor of Ibo paid a bribe of 500 crowns to an Arab of Zanzibar, to induce him to withhold information of the supercargoes of slaves being then in the town. It is also believed that the Slave Trade will be extensively resumed from Quillimane, as a Portuguese who resides there, by name De Cruz, when at Zanzibar openly boasted that he would soon make good some losses he had experienced by the sale of 4,000 slaves he possessed at Quillimane. With these facts before it, Her Majesty's Government do not doubt that the Government of His Most Faithful Majesty will take immediate steps for the removal and punishment of those authorities who, in violation of the orders of their Government have been guilty of conniving at the traffic in slaves. Senhor d'Avila. ARTHUR C. MAGENIS. No. 174.-Sir A. Magenis to Earl Russell.-(Received February 1.) WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch of the 31st ultimo, I have the honour to inclose herewith copy of the note which, in obedience to your Lordship's instructions, I addressed on the 20th instant to M. d'Avila, drawing the serious attention of the Portuguese Government to the extent to which the traffic in slaves is now carried on in their African possessions. Earl Russell. I have, &c. ARTHUR C. MAGENIS. (Inclosure.)—Sir A. Magenis to Senhor d'Avila. M. LE MINISTRE, Lisbon, January 20, 1862. I HAVE the honour to inform your Excellency that I have been instructed by Earl Russell to draw the serious attention of His Most Faithful Majesty's Government to the extent to which the traffic in slaves is now suffered to be carried on, directly or indirectly, in His Majesty's African dominions, owing to a want of due care and energy on the part of the local authorities. The reports of Her Majesty's Commissioners at Loanda clearly show that great facilities have been afforded to the operations of the slave-traders in the vicinity of the River Congo, by the numerous small craft employed in the coasting trade in that quarter, and furnished with regular papers by the authorities of Loanda. Five vessels of this description sailing under the Portuguese flag, and provided with official papers by the Government of Angela were recently captured by the Portuguese cruizer Don Pedro V, and 3 of them, the Tiger, the Vai Vo, and the Paquete de Moanda, were condemned by the Mixed Commission Court at Loanda, it being proved that they had been employed by a notorious slave-dealer named Luiz Leivas, a Portuguese subject, in the shipment of slaves at Mangue Grande. Another Portuguese subject, the well-known slave-dealer of Loanda, Pamplona, was also concerned in this transaction, and it is stated that some of the slaves found in the Paquete de Moanda had been embarked under his directions in or near the very harbour of Loanda. Two Portuguese subjects, Antonio Alves and José Vieira Borges, were actually on board the Paquete de Moanda when that vessel was taken, and although they were proved to have assisted in the embarkation of the slaves at Mangue Grande, they were allowed to remain at large in the city of Loanda, having been admitted to bail when delivered up by the captors to the authorities at that place. There is another subject which I am directed to bring to your Excellency's notice: It is stated by Her Majesty's Commissioners at Loanda that a system has recently sprung up, and is now carried on to a great extent, of sending slaves from that place to the Island of St. Thomas under different denominations, sometimes as "domestic slaves" or servants," at others as "libertos," occasionally as free negroes. But it is clear that nearly all these negroes, although provided with passports from the Government of the Province, and appearing in the list of passengers published in the "Boletim Official" as " pretos livres," are not free, and that they are only taken on board the vessels which convey them to St. Thomas on the plea of their being so for the purpose of evading the penalties of the Treaty of July 3, 1842. I have the honour to inclose an extract from the "Official Gazette" of Loanda, from which it appears that during the first 9 months of 1861, 415 negroes were shipped at that port for St. Thomas without any attempt at concealment. The Island of St. Thomas is a place in every way adapted to serve the purposes of the slave-dealers as a depôt for collecting slaves, and any vessels which might effect the shipment of her cargo there would find the prevailing winds suit them well for the voyage to Cuba; and independently of this consideration, the comparatively high price of slaves at St. Thomas itself renders the traffic between Loanda and that place very lucrative, while the risk of detection or loss is slight, and the facilities of transport are considerable. The steamers touching at St. Thomas on their way to Lisbon are chiefly made use of by the persons engaged in these transactions; the same individual frequently making two or three voyages in the year, accompanied each time by 10 slaves, the number prescribed by Article V of the Treaty of 1842, which is also evaded in many cases by distributing the slaves transported among the whole of the passengers on board the steamer, two slaves being set down as belonging to each passenger. Besides the negroes thus conveyed from Loanda, there is reason to believe that a great number of slaves are likewise introduced into the Island of St. Thomas from the River Gaboon, and adjacent parts of the continent. In drawing your Excellency's attention to these circumstances, I am instructed at the same time to state that while, on the one hand, Her Majesty's Government feel bound to believe that the Government of His Most Faithful Majesty are acting in good faith, and are in earnest in their endeavours to suppress the Slave Trade, they are equally convinced, on the other hand, that the intentions of the Portuguese Government in this respect are not carried into effect by the Portuguese local authorities. The reports which have reached Her Majesty's Government leave little room to doubt that during the past year two vessels succeeded in shipping cargoes of slaves from the Portuguese territory to the southward of Loanda, and the impunity with which Portuguese subjects notoriously known to be engaged in the Slave Trade have hitherto escaped the punishment due to their crimes, even when, as in the case of the two individuals Alves and Borges, referred to in the former part of this note, they are in the hands of the Portuguese authorities, cannot but encourage them to continue their unlawful pursuits. One of the most effective measures for the suppression of this traffic would be the removal from the African Coast of those Portuguese subjects who are notoriously known to be engaged in the Slave Trade; but whatever steps the Portuguese Government may think proper to take to vindicate their good faith in this matter, |