Perhaps of all the melancholy reminiscences of this vile nest of slavery, the most painful which recurs to my mind is the great indignity offered to the British nation in the desecration of the grave of one of her most enterprizing members.
I have already stated that the remains of my lamented friend Duncan were interred beside those of his countrymen already buried there. The grave was dug by the express orders of the Governor-general of the Province, but when Señhor José Vincente de Gama commenced building a tomb over the remains, in compliance with my earnest request that he would do so, and charge the expense to me, he was interrupted in this Christian office by a ruffian named Thomas de Souza Santos, who stated that the ground belonged to him, and that he would not allow a tomb to be erected over the remains of the Englishman. When remonstrated with by Señhor de Gama, he made use of the vilest reproaches at his daring thus to honour the resting-place of a heretic; and when told that he was only carrying out the wishes of a countryman of the deceased viz., the British Consul, the rage of this brute, Santos, became ungovernable. He kicked the stones from off the sacred spot, and jumped upon the grave of him before whose living eye his vile and coward heart had often quailed. This insult was offered to England while a British ship of war was lying in the harbour, and a British consular flag was flying in the port.
Being further remonstrated with, the wretch threatened De Gama, that if he addressed another word to him on the subject, he would disinter the remains of the Englishman, and cast them on the beach—to prevent which Señhor Gama immediately repaired to me. On my representing matters officially to the Governor-general, he could only give me an assurance that the remains of my countryman should not be disturbed; and I was obliged to content myself with having a cross made on board Her Majesty’s ship, then in harbour, and having this erected at the head of poor Duncan’s grave.
The future is unknown to us; but if it should be in my destiny ever to go to Mozambique again, I hope to be able to erect a monument over the remains of Duncan, the pioneer of British commercial enterprise in Eastern Africa, which will at once attest the admiration of his countrymen and their abhorrence of his persecutors, who would attempt to carry their contemptible hatred even beyond the tomb.[4]
After the trials of the last five months, it will not be surprising that the sudden change to shipboard, where all was peace and comfort, was too much for me. And although I had borne the excitement of this period with apparent indifference, now that the long struggle was over, the spirit yielded to the weakness of the body, and before we were many days at sea I had a severe attack of fever. The blessing of God on the skill of Dr. Speers, and the unwearied attention of an ever-gentle nurse, soon brought me round.
Anxious to meet with Dr. Livingstone, whom I expected to fall in with off the Zambesi, we directed our course to the mouths of that river; and while approaching the Killimane mouth, we fell in with a dhow, under Portuguese colours, which we found bound to Mozambique. This vessel, called the “Flor de Moçambique,” when boarded, was discovered to have on board a number of boys, who were being doubtless carried to Mozambique for the purpose of being sold as slaves. The captain of the dhow, who was a Moor, at first strenuously denied that this was the case; but on a more diligent search being made, a poor decrepit slave was discovered headed up in a cask in her hold. On being brought on board the “Lyra,” and finding himself in safety, he stated, that having been taken in war, he had been most cruelly treated by the Portuguese, pointing to various wounds and putrifying sores on his body; that he was now going to Mozambique, in company with a number of small boys, to be sold as slaves; and that this system of slave-trade was carried on constantly from Killimane. The Moor tried to get over this by stating that the slave in question was a refractory one, belonging to the Government, and that he was being sent up to Mozambique for punishment by the Governor-general, as they could do nothing with him at Killimane! I thought that they were getting mighty particular about negro life, and that this tale differed considerably from what I had heard at Mozambique was a usual mode of disposing of refractory slaves throughout the whole Province, viz., tying them up in a sack and drowning them.
The ship’s papers were produced, and on them were a number of fictitious names; the Moor wished the boys to answer to these names, but the imposition was too gross to be allowed to pass. Boys of seven, eight, and nine years, were required to pass muster for persons of thirty and forty years, whose names they had never heard before!
At this stage of the proceeding the Commander of the “Lyra” asked my opinion of matters, and I told him that she appeared to be one of the numerous dhows employed along the coast feeding the slave-trade, by collecting them from distant parts, and so obtaining cargoes for the large slavers from America and Cuba.
I told the Moor that I was the British Consul for Mozambique, and that he had better make a clean breast of it. The Moor then stated that, previous to leaving Killimane, the Governor of that place had sent twenty-two slaves on board, to be delivered to his owner at Mozambique. He remonstrated with the Governor of Killimane, and told him that, since they had a British Consul at Mozambique, the English stopped all slave-trade. That when at sea he was sure to meet with an English man-of-war, and when the Captain of the man-of-war found he had slaves on board he would seize the dhow. That to make his mind easy on this point, the Governor of Mozambique added what he thought a sufficient number of names to the list of his crew, so that no English man-of-war would seize the dhow. He admitted that these slaves were, with some others which were to follow, a portion of a cargo for a slaver; and stated that the owner of the dhow was the Collector of the Customs at Mozambique, and the uncle of João da Costa Soares, the notorious French Free Labour Agent at Mozambique. Commander Oldfield at once decided upon seizing this slave dhow. The crew were subsequently landed at the Bazarutto Islands; the captain and slaves conveyed to Natal, where we were bound, and the vessel set on fire.
Commander Oldfield, acting on information which I supplied to him, after landing me at Mauritius, on his return to the Mozambique Channel, captured sixteen dhows engaged in the slave-trade, showing what one energetic officer, having the public service at heart, could do in the Mozambique Channel, while his senior officer, playing at billiards, kept his vessel at anchor in that harbour. These are facts which ought to be inquired into, and the zealous officer should obtain his well-earned promotion.