THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 8, 13 November 1883, Page 4

THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Ay officer on board the sailing schooner Undine, Lieutenant and Commander Henry M'A. Cutfield, employed in suppressing the slave-trade in the Mozambique Channel, writing home, says:—“We are having a lively time, I can assure you, with 103 poor, miserable, half-starved wretches on board, eighty of them women and children, and for the most part children from eighteen months to ten years old, and one only four days old. The dhow that they came to Johanna in was sixty-three tons, so they were packed like sardines. She was caught by our boat that was left behind for ninety-six days, and I am sorry to say one of our poor fellows died of fever in her. These slaves were kidnapped about 200 miles south of Mozambique, brought down to the coast and shipped off to Johanna as a speculation, as the sugar crop is just coming on. Some of the children have been taken care of by the women. Two little chaps the men look after are housed in a biscuit box, and they cry lustily if taken out of it. They eat all day and nearly all night. One old woman became insane after she was taken out of the dhow, Sod she has a baby with her, The poor old woman is tied down to prevent her gain; overboard in a fit, of which she has hai several, Every morning all are stripped and the fire hose played on them indiscriminately, and don’t they want it I The smell |s something too bad to be talked about. Luckily we have beautiful weather this trip, and a strong fair wind. Sqm* would os certain to die if we had a spell of bad weather, as we have only the upper deck for them to lie on. The night we took them on board they were so cramped and weak that only about twenty could walk. The rest were passed in one after the other, and then ■towed in rows for the night. 1201 b of rice, treacle, and sweet potatoes, wars oookcd at o ice. When they saw it they went hands and feet into it, and fought, and bit, and etch did everything that could be dona to get a little more than another. It was really a most distressing sight. Even now they fight for a piece of bread or anything we give them. Last night they all picked up so, after a good meal and good sleeping berths, that they commenced singing and dancing their native dances. What worries as most is the crying of the babies; it goes on all day and night, and is an awful nuisance. We should, I think, capture three times as many if we had some more boats and a steam cutter, as there is not a shadow of doubt that large numbers are run here every year, and especially about this time. Unfortunately the master gave us the slip, though we were the whole of the night looking for him on shore. I think we left some more on shore who could not be found, but we may pick them up on our return. The boat captured 149, and we hope eventually to get twenty-two more, so that twenty-four have died or been sold somewhere else,"