As the Arab dhows employed on this service are, for the most part, old and unseaworthy, and they often lose their way, there can be no doubt that numbers of negroes on board die from starvation.
The supercargo of an American vessel which I visited in Mozambique harbour, in the month of February, 1858, told me that on his leaving Nossi-bé, a week previous to my seeing him, there were four French vessels waiting there for cargoes of free labourers; and that, during his stay at that port, news arrived that the price of free labourers had fallen to one hundred dollars at Réunion, where it had been gradually decreasing since the month of September, 1857, in consequence of the market becoming overstocked. He said that there was no difference between free labourers and slaves, as carried on at Nossi-bé; for that on board of free labour ships the slaves had all heavy logs of hard wood securing both ancles; and that, if they wanted to move from one place to another, they had to carry the log to enable them to do so.
He stated his opinion that, if Great Britain permitted France to carry on the Slave-Trade under the denomination of Free Labour, vessels would soon be found in the Mozambique Channel from the Southern States of America, under the American flag, and with an American Delegate on board, authorized to purchase slaves, and call them American Free Labourers.
He had heard that the slaves on board two of the so-called French Free Labour ships had risen and destroyed all the French on board.
I subsequently learned that the circumstances attending the destruction of the French on board one of these vessels were truly revolting. It appears that the vessel, a small French brig, was at anchor in one of the harbours at the north-west end of Madagascar; she had completed her cargo, and was on the eve of departure. The captain had gone on shore to settle matters with the Arab procurer, and the mate and crew were preparing for weighing the anchor. In an instant, without any warning, a cry was heard among the oppressed. The slaves had risen, and a fierce struggle took place between the oppressor and the oppressed, in which the latter were victorious. With the exception of one man, who saved himself by jumping overboard, the French were cruelly murdered, the slaves wreaking their vengeance even on the inanimate forms of the dead, which they subjected to the most revolting indignities long after life was extinct. The captain’s son, a mere youth, the slaves put to the most excruciating torments, under which he perished.
They cut the head off the dead body, and placed it on the figure-head of the vessel. They gutted the vessel, set her on fire, and then escaped to the shore. With these facts before us, with which the French government are well acquainted, I ask whether the slaves obtained for the French Free Labour, from the north-west end of Madagascar, are free agents?
It will now be my duty to state how the Slaves are obtained in Mozambique, for the supply of the French Slave-Trade to Réunion.
When this description of traffic in human beings was renewed at Mozambique, under the new denomination of French Free Labour Emigration, there was a surplus of slaves in all the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of Africa; and the Governor-general of Mozambique, and his subordinates, found no difficulty in supplying the demand for the first twelve months, that is to say, from 1854 to 1855; for the Portuguese residents were only too glad to sell to the Portuguese officials those slaves whom the orders of the government of Portugal had prevented being supplied to the regular slave ships from Cuba, and the southern ports of the United States; and the effect of this trade was to rid Mozambique of a great portion of its slave population, with which it was overburdened. After the first twelve months of the traffic, slaves became scarce, the price rose, the demand still increased, but the French slave-dealers were unwilling to give the prices now demanded by the residents in Mozambique. To supply the demand, keep prices low, and secure the enormous profits which the Governor-general of Mozambique, and his partners in this nefarious traffic, were enjoying, it became necessary to send into the interior for slaves. At first, it was found that the chiefs in the interior refused to comply with the demands of the Moors or Arabs, who went there for the purchase of slaves, alleging as a reason that it was contrary to the wishes of the Portuguese government that there should be any more traffic in slaves; and the Moors, on their return to Mozambique, declared to the Governor-general that they could not, in consequence, supply the demand.
To prove to the chiefs in the interior that the Moors went with the consent of the Portuguese authorities in search of slaves for the French Free Labour Emigration, some of the Portuguese soldiers, who had been living with the women of the country, and had acquired the Makua language, were despatched with the Moors into the interior, and the uniforms of the soldiers of the King of Portugal were found a sufficient guarantee to the chiefs in the interior that the slave-trade was authorized by the Portuguese government, and immediately they set to work to supply the traffic in earnest; by these means the prices of slaves were kept low at Mozambique, the Portuguese officials made enormous gains, and the French Free Labour Emigration flourished. Meanwhile, all the horrors which had accompanied the slave-trade in the interior of Africa in former times were revived. Parents sold their children, and every available slave was disposed of to supply the demand; but, this increasing, recourse was had to arms, for the purpose of capturing individual prisoners. Numbers perished in the deadliest warfare. This state of things was brought about by the Moors and the Portuguese soldiers, who had accompanied them to procure the slaves. I have, myself, conversed with some of the actors in these scenes, and the facts which I have stated cannot be denied.
At last a reaction took place; the natives found that they were destroying each other to obtain a few prisoners for the supply of the slave-trade which the Portuguese were carrying on; and, for a time, they ceased from warfare, and again there was a scarcity in the slave market at Mozambique.