zibar by the mail-steamer on the 7th instant (where I talked over Slave Trade matters with Dr. Kirk during four days' stay), left that port on the 11th instant for the Mozambique station on board Captain Le Hunt Ward's ship.

Her Majesty's ship Thetis, in the first instance, had to rendezvous with Her Majesty's ship Flying Fish, off Cape St. Andrew, when I was enabled to compare information I had collected regarding the Slave Trade said to be carried on by schooners under the French flag from the port of Tullear, on the south coast of Madagascar, to Bourbon, with the facts ascertained by Captain Croban during his visit to Tullear itself and St. Augustine's Bay.

Evidence confirms an elaborate system of slave-dealing established there under the guise of free emigration, conducted by the Italian Vice-Consul, supposed to be a brother to M. Rosier, master of the Étienne et Laurence, a Creole of Bourbon, who adopts the alias of "MacCullum."

As your Lordship is aware, the Étienne et Laurence, as well as the Clémence, the Africa, and other French schooners, have for some time past been suspected of carrying slaves. The Étienne et Laurence, formerly the Seibwright, an American vessel, was captured by the Alabama and sold at Mozambique, whence she was taken to Bourbon, where her name was changed, and she obtained the French flag, and has since been commanded by M. Rosier. It is believed that not 18 months ago she shipped slaves at the mouth of the Quilimane River, and it is certain she conveys labourers from time to time to Bourbon from the Madagascar ports. These latter, from Captain Crohan's information, are men purchased by the Italian Vice-Consul (Rosier, alias MacCullum) from the Sakalava Chiefs (who are constantly engaged in petty warfare), at from 20 dollars to 30 dollars, and although kept in irons on shore, are shipped as passengers, with papers purporting to be signed by the Chiefs, stating that they proceed to Bourbon in search of employment or their own free will. A M. Follet, agent for Messrs. Joubert and Co., of Bourbon, it would appear, is also engaged in these transactions. Depôts are established both at Tullear, latitude 23° 23′ south, and St. Augustine's Bay, 12 miles further south: 30 slaves were said to be at the former and 50 at the latter, in confinement at the time of the Flying Fish's visit.

Twelve months ago 150 were shipped at a time, but orders are now to ship in small numbers only to Bourbon.

To test the accuracy of these statements, Captain Crohan proceeded to Ranapasy and Morundava, where they were confirmed by two Norwegian missionaries, Captain Home (agent from Messrs.

* Recently seized by French uthorities at Nossi Bé with some 50 slaves on board.-F. E.

Holmes and Co., of Capetown), and by a Hova Chief, sent by the Prime Minister to report confidentially on the Sakalavas of Tullear and St. Augustine's Bay.

"From the evidence of these people," Captain Crohan writes, "I have every reason to believe that a Slave Trade is carried on at Tullear and St. Augustine's Bay by French subjects."

The Earl of Derby.

F. ELTON.

No. 151.-Consul Elton to the Earl of Derby.-(Rec. August 1.) MY LORD, Mozambique, June 10, 1876. DR. KIRK, Her Majesty's Consul-General at Zanzibar, in a despatch dated 7th May last, transmitted me copies in Arabic and in translation of two Proclamations issued by the Sultan of Zanzibar relative to the suppression of the inland Slave Traffic.

The Arabic notices I caused to be affixed upon the door of the Consulate, where they were read by many Arabs and Mujoges from the coast, and I also took an early opportunity of explaining the Sultan's action to the Governor-General at an interview, when I placed in his hands copies both of the Arabic and English versions.

On the following day I left for Ibo, and on my return found that the Governor-General had published one of the Proclamations, headed by a few remarks, in the "Boletim Official" of the 22nd May, a copy of which I have the honour to inclose, with translation.

I trust your Lordship will be pleased to hear of the GovernorGeneral's action in this matter, and may approve of my having thanked his Excellency for the same the day after my return to Mozambique.

I should not omit, in conclusion, to state that the GovernorGeneral was much gratified at the statement made by Mr. Bourke in the House of Commons ("Times," April 5) that "Her Majesty's Government had thanked the Portuguese Government for the way in which the Governor-General was acting."

The Earl of Derby.

I have, &c.,

F. ELTON.

(Inclosure.)—Extract from the “Boletim Official" of May 22, 1876.

No. 161.-Consul Elton to the Earl of Derby.—(Rec. September 23.) (Extract.) Mozambique, August 17, 1876.

ON the 21st July I had the honour to report that (leaving Mr. Manning in temporary charge of Her Britannic Majesty's Consulate) I started from Choca, on Conducia Bay, for the Tugulu district situated at the foot of the Tugulu Hills, and to the westward of Table Mountain, the principal field hitherto used by the Arab and Mujoge slave-dealers for the hunting down and collection

of Makua slaves specially destined for export from the UmfusiKivolane Delta to Madagascar.

On two previous occasions I had been hindered in attempts to visit this part of the Mosembe district, upon one by want of carriers, and upon the other by the flat refusal of the Chief to allow me to pass beyond the Mesa, on the plea that "fighting" (that is, slavehunting) was going on in Tugulu, and that he could not be responsible for my personal safety; however, on my sending a message reiterating my wish to make the journey, on the 9th July, Abdallah Mohammed expressed his willingness to supply me with guides and carriers, and told me that I should return convinced that all Slave Trade operations had now been effectually put a stop to under his orders.

From Choca I sailed at daylight on the 21st (I was prevented by other work from starting at an earlier date) to Chicoma, and thence marched five miles to Shambala, the Chief's residence, where I encamped for the night, and on the 22nd having been furnished with 2 guides and 14 carriers, crossed the Mosembe plateau, and halted upon its extreme limit, at the villages of Molo, the headquarters where the dealers formerly organized their bands for foray on the low-lying country reaching away to the westward.

The head man at Molo was an exceedingly ancient and garrulous negro, and had been actively employed in the Slave Trade, so he informed me, for the past 60 years, and as captain of a dhow had run cargoes from Mosembe to most of the Madagascar ports, all the Comoro Islands, and also from Kilwa Kisinji to Zanzibar, Brava, Lamu, &c. According to this old man's opinion, the Madagascar export trade had been "dead for the past six months." No cargoes had been shipped, he asserted, north of Mozambique for more than 10 months, and only three during five months from the UmfusiKivolane Delta.

He admitted the Tugulu country was destroyed, but said I should find that the people were gaining confidence and returning to it now that slave-collecting had been put an end to there-a fact that he appeared sincerely to lament, although long since he must have been physically unable to join actively in any such operations.

From Molo, the Lagoon of Mrésu was reached, and the Tugulu flats entered. Village after village was passed, burned and plundered. All cultivation was at an end, and only marked by broad clearings, choked up with long grass and weeds. Fish weirs and the houses for goats, poultry, and storage of grain, built on platforms, tumbling to pieces, and a few half-starved Makuas living on roots and by trapping, whom we surprised lurking in the woods, where the paths had almost become untraceable, were the only inhabitants found.

In the words of my guide, "the country had been spoilt," and a broad, rich, thickly-populated, and well-cultivated belt of land some 60 miles by 20 miles converted into a barren wilderness.

As we approached the Tugulu range the people showed more confidence, and were reoccupying and rebuilding a few outlying hamlets, and I am glad to say some of the natives soon found out our camps, and ventured, at first very carefully, to follow our tracks, and build up their fish weirs on the upper waters of the Conducia River, which rises from the water-parting of the Tugulu Hills.

I returned to Mozambique on the 30th ultimo, all my party suffering to some degree from the miasma of the low-lying country we had journeyed through, quite convinced that a great change had taken place, tendering to the better furtherance of the hindering of slave-collection for export to Madagascar, in the policy of the chief men of the Mosembe district, where, at this time last year, I had to report a most active and flourishing Slave Traffic was carried on, in despite of the Governor-General's efforts at suppression.

On the 31st ultimo, the day after my return, it being a fête-day (issue of Charter to Portuguese, 1826), I paid the usual visit made by Consuls to the Governor-General, and had a lengthened interview with him on Slave Trade matters. After giving his Excellency an account of my late journey and the state of the Tugulu and Mosembe districts, he informed that he was happy to say that he had at last entered into a Convention with the Chief Moussa Kwantu (of Moma, Angoxa, and Maravoni notoriety), not to allow the shipment of slaves from the district (comprising the rivers just named) over which he exercises considerable authority, and to discontinue supplying the dealers to the south with slaves for export.

His performance of this engagement being secured by the deposit of a large amount of ivory in the Custom-house of the Portuguese Settlement of Angoxa, this arrangement will, I trust, taken in combination with the proposed occupation and guard of the coast line, specially reported in my despatch of August 4, be productive of good results in the reduction of the Slave Export Trade hence to Madagascar.

On the 30th ultimo the French aviso Le Surcoup, Lieutenant de Vaisseau H. Rouquette, arrived in Mozambique from China, on her way home viâ Madagascar, with orders to touch at numerous ports

en route.

She was last from Majunga, and left Mozambique on the 2nd August for Ibo, Kilwa, and Zanzibar.

On the 31st ultimo Her Majesty's ship Thetis arrived in port and saluted the Portuguese flag, the salute being returned from Fort St. Sebastian, and on the 1st August I accompanied Captain Ward on a visit to the Governor-General

Captain Ward, on the 22nd July, with the boats of Her Majesty's ships Thetis and Flying Fish, had revisited Nos-Simbalava, the Sakalava town punished by him on the 7th October last, for treacherously firing upon his ship's boats some days previously to that date, and severely wounding one of his men; where, after entering the river without opposition, he succeeded in obtaining an interview with the hostile Chief, and explained to him that so long as our boats were properly received and no encouragement held forth by his people to slave-dhows sailing from the African coast, our desire was to be friendly and not to be hostile, and, in proof of such desire, his town and villages, which could have been burnt by the boats without difficulty, had been spared, after his men had been chastised both for their first act of unfriendliness and for opening hostilities for the second time.

The Chief expressed extreme penitence, excused himself from the responsibility of the Sakalavas' action as well as he was able, acknowledged Captain Ward's forbearance in abstaining from burning his settlement, and promised for the future that all boats flying the British flag and entering his river should be hospitably received.

The Sakalavas are said to have lost heavily from the boat's fire, and their deserved chastisement, well known upon the West Madagascar coast, coupled with Captain Ward's well-timed explanation of our motives to the Chief, will probably deter other tribes from imitating their treacherous example.

In order that Captain Ward should be fully aware of what had transpired of late regarding Slave Trade matters on the Mozambique side, I showed him my last monthly Slave Trade Report to your Lordship, drawing his attention to the two dhows reported by the mail-steamer which sailed from Antonio River, and my remarks relative to the port of Mayinterano.

Captain Ward, I regret to say, was able circumstantially to confirm the fact that one of the dhows had landed her cargo at Bali Bay, and it appeared, from his interpreter's information, that the other (which had been fitted out at Mayinterano) had also succeeded in making a port on the Madagascar coast further south.

Mayinterano, it appeared, had not been visited by Her Majesty's ships Thetis and Flying Fish, as I supposed; therefore, as evidence tended to prove that the Antonio dhows, and the last dhow taken by the Portuguese and now hauled up on the beach in front of the town, all fitted out thence, Captain Ward determined to proceed to its examination, and on the 4th instant, in a letter, copy of which forms Inclosure No. 1, requested me to accompany him.

On the same day, having accepted Captain Ward's invitation to join him, believing that a personal inspection of Mayinterano, and inquiries made there, would materially aid me in sifting future