New Orleans Republican., 1873-06-22
BRITISH EAST INDIA SLAVE TRADE.

and a nobleman of her court have been
purchased by the Portuguese 'asco de
Cana on his celebrated voyage around
the coas. of Africa. Long since that
period, however, the East Indians have
engaged in and even superseded the Pof-
tuguese in the African slave trade. so 'hat
if the great composer should write Il .!'''-
caine as of to-day he might readily relieve
the East Indian princess and SUBSTITUTE
plenty of African slaves from the British
possessions in India. Sir Bartle trere mas
been sent by the British government 10
NEGOTIATE at Zanzibar. with the native
African kings, treaty for the suppression
Of the foreign slave trade from the east
coast of Africa. Pending these negotla'
tions he visits Bombay and addresses an
assemblage of native merchants and rulers
in the object of dissuading them from
dealing in African slaves. In this inter-
view he tells them that more than thirty
thousand African slaves are annually car
ried into the British possessions in India.
We have deemed this disclosure so impor-
tant, especially to our colored readers
that we have copied from the bombay
Gazette. and published in another column.
a document too valuable to be mutilated
bv extracts. From this communication it
will be seen:
1. That the African slave trade on
the east coast of Africa must be greater
even than it was from the coasts OF
Guinea, Congo. Ashantee. on the western
side. This inference is made from the
evidence of Denham. Mungo Park. Speke.
Harris, Livingstone. and other explorers
of interior Africa, that the domestic slave
trade is an institution which has never
been intermitted, and that the slave class
furnishes a measure of value in cattle and
other goods uniformly exchangeable from
the Libyan desert across to the Gulf OF
Guinea. The same authorities show
that Turkey. Persia and Arabia, buy
African slaves from Abyssinia and
other slave producing states. Adding to
this trade that affirmed by the English ne
gotiator, (the slave trade on the east
coast of Africa will compete with that on
the west side, even when British ships
conducted that trade for Spain under the
Asiento contract OF forced the same un-
happy commodity on her helpless Ameri-
can colonies.
2. That England has been more sue
cessful, if not more active, in suppressing
the west coast slave trade than that on
the east coast, and has at least tolerated
the existence of a large importation OF
African slaves into her East India possess
sions.
It is not agreeable TO ask at the hands
Of a professional philanthropist an ex-
planation when he hands the plate to
every one else and puts nothing in him
self yet; England occupies this embarras-
sing position. She must explain to the
nations how, when she manifested SO
much interest in free Texas, and sent SO
many missionaries to labor for emancipa-
ton in the American States, this same
evil prevailed, in undated enormity,
within her own possessions? 1t will be
in vain to say that it was an Asiatic insti-
tuition. MIR. Frere says the trade has re-
vived in India within thirty or forty years.
A foreign trade can not be regarded as a
domestic institution; besides, Mr.. Frere
says, "a great many Of the pirates were,
am afraid, of European descent" The
African slave trade has been Of late GEN.
turies always carried on by Europeans
Could this trade have been carried on
without English capital and English COM
manders, and English cooperation ?
These slaves must have come by sea-
Have the native Indians the shipping for
this trade? Has England no coast guard.
and no customhouses to protect her reve-
nues against contraband importations?
It does look that while forcing opium
into China. she might with even less ex-
hibition of force kept slavery out Of the
cotton districts of her Asiatic possessions.
It does seem that powe. adequate to
rule an empire of two hundred million
people need not persuade her subjects to
abandon traffic which she has taught and
treated elsewhere as the most barbarious
and brutal abuse in the world. 1t may be
that when taxed by the civilized world with
violation Of faith and asked how came
her African slaves in India. she may be
driven to the explanation given by the
Connecticut boy when required to explain
how q live chicken came to be concealed
in the hat he was wearing: 'Wall. do
tell! guess that chicken must a crawled
up through the leg Of my breeches." 1t
will appear little strange that just during
the thirty OF forty years that England was
preaching emancipation through the cot
ton States of our Union. the African slave
trade seems to have been resumed in
her cotton colonies of India. The effect
Of the overthrow of Southern slavery OF the
dissolution Of our Union was expected
to have promoted British cotton culture in
India. American emancipation has how.
ever enhanced the profits Of cotton cul'
ture and the war of the Union has merely
tried the merits Of frame for service OF
indefinite duration. So if the civil wal
was the third and last effort of England to
injure herself by defeating republican
liberty. she has been convinced that in
every case she has strengthened and en-
larped those institutions she desired to de.