6815. Did Governor Doherty express himself satisfied, or otherwise, with the result of your expedition to the Gallinas?—In the first letter in the correspondence before the Committee, a despatch to Lord John Russell, Governor Doherty expresses, in the strongest way, his satisfaction.
6816. Sir R. H. Inglis.] Having received the approbation of the local government near the scene of your exploit, have you also received any expression of approbation on the part of Her Majesty’s Government, either on the part of the Colonial-office, or of the Admiralty, or of both?—The Colonial Secretary and the Foreign Secretary both expressed, in the strongest terms, their approbation of my proceedings. My despatches to the Admiralty did not arrive till the middle of July. They had, however, previously approved of my conduct, although they had declared that they could not entertain the question with reference to promotion, as the despatches had not come to them. The despatches sent through the senior officer arrived at the Admiralty in July, and I was promoted in August.
6817. Were you promoted by the Admiralty with reference to those services?—No, I cannot say that; I think they may also have considered that as affording some claim, from the tone of letters which I have seen, not addressed to myself, by the Foreign and the Colonial Secretaries.
6818. But the approbation of the Colonial Secretary and of the Foreign Secretary was absolute?—It was absolute.
6819. And the approbation of the Admiralty may be inferred from the fact of your promotion?—That approbation was expressed, in the first instance, by them before they received the despatches, from what had appeared before Parliament.
6820. Mr. Aldam.] Has the Admiralty issued orders for other officers in similar cases to follow the same course?—I think the Admiralty has done so.
6821. Mr. Forster.] You wish the Committee distinctly to understand that you think such means as you resorted to would not have the effect of offering a bad example to the native chiefs, which they might imitate, and under some pretext or other to seize upon British property?—I think not; I think no example in the natives engaged in the slave trade can possibly make them worse than they are while such traffic is there pursued, nor is there a possibility of improvement until it is stopped.
6822. You think that, when the slave trade is once put down, British settlements planted at the parts where it has been carried on will keep it down?—I think eventually legitimate trade will keep it down; I do not limit it to British settlements only, although British settlements would undoubtedly have a good effect for that object.
6823. Then if a British settlement had been founded at the Gallinas on the completion of your operations there, you think the slave trade would have been permanently suppressed?—Undoubtedly I think so, if founded on good principles.
6824. In your last examination you spoke in terms of strong condemnation of the traders upon the coast having any commercial dealings with persons suspected of being engaged in the slave trade; now, without requiring from a naval commander an intimate or practical knowledge of the principles of commerce, it may nevertheless be reasonable to ask you, after the strong opinions you have expressed, how British trade in Africa could possibly be successfully carried on in competition with foreigners under any restrictions such as you have pointed at?—The restriction that I recommend is, that there should be such a change in the law as to enable us to seize and to condemn any vessel that trades with a notorious slave factory, there being no other trade but the slave trade there prosecuted; also, against the supply of slave ships with goods for the purposes of their traffic, and also against the sale of vessels calculated for the slave trade to slave dealers. In my opinion, those three practices should be stopped.