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Dhow chasing in Zanzibar waters and on the Eastern coast of Africa. Narrative of five years' experiences in the suppression of the slave trade.

Rhodes House, Oxford. British Library.

Dhow Chasing Zanzibar East Coast Africa Slave Trade Suppression Naval Patrol Cruiser Indian Ocean

This travel narrative, published to coincide with Sir Bartle Frère's expedition to Zanzibar in 1873, recounts George Sulivan's experience on board several anti-slave trade patrol cruisers in the Indian Ocean, in the 1860s. Travelling through the islands and along the coast of East Africa from Mozambique to Cairo, Sulivan records his observations of slave trading activity there. He describes the different types of dhows operating in the Indian Ocean, and the strategies they used to get past the naval patrols. Sulivan called the slave trade inefficient, "uncivilized" and "a curse to mankind" (21). One of his cruisers captured about 300 slaves, and their testimonies were recorded via interviews with a translator (181-86). In conclusion, Sulivan recommends the establishment of a colony of freed Africans at Dar es Salaam, and a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar abolishing the slave trade and slavery.

Three editions published in 1873. Contains a map of the east coast of Africa, geographical illustrations, pictures of the freed Africans, and a cross-section of a slave-trading dhow (see attached download for more details). Also includes appendices: official reports, evidence on the East African slave trade presented to the British Commons, letters (some written by Livingstone in Africa), a report published in the Paris journal Le Moniteur Universel, on 10 December 1872 on the slave trade in Central Africa, and a report on the slave trade across the Red Sea by German naturalist Dr. Wilhelm Schimpfer, both translated into English.