Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters and on the Eastern Coast of Africa

A chronicle of the difficulties and successes of trying to police the slave trading routes on the eastern Indian Ocean. Captain George Sullivan writes of his experiences and frustrations in trying to enforce British anti-slave-trade laws among the Arab and African kingdoms of the east coast of Africa and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Madagascar in 1849. Battling with scorching heat, rough seas, tropical diseases, hostility from the native slavers, and language barriers, the naval ships continue the struggle for abolition. While rescuing a significant number of slaves from transport dhows, the captain chronicles their stories: their tribes, how they were sold into slavery, and the best location to rehabilitate them to avoid re-capture. A fascinating record, published in 1873, of the struggle to enforce the complex abolition laws far from central government, with dubious documents and deceptions encountered from local Arab and Portuguese slavers.