The Arab and the African; . hichslaves once imported can be exported by land or bycoasting dhow, with no one to gainsay, to Arabia,Egypt, Persia, Syria and Turkey. How can the trade be stopped is a question askedby many now, and asked in real earnest. A glanceat the appended map, with some of the chief slaveroutes indicated, will show that it is not a questionof East African policy alone. A blockade, even ifeffectual, would need to extend three-quarters roundAfrica, if it were intended to effect something morethan diverting and so lengthening most of the routes,and thus merely diminishing the
The Arab and the African; . hichslaves once imported can be exported by land or bycoasting dhow, with no one to gainsay, to Arabia,Egypt, Persia, Syria and Turkey. How can the trade be stopped is a question askedby many now, and asked in real earnest. A glanceat the appended map, with some of the chief slaveroutes indicated, will show that it is not a questionof East African policy alone. A blockade, even ifeffectual, would need to extend three-quarters roundAfrica, if it were intended to effect something morethan diverting and so lengthening most of the routes,and thus merely diminishing the traffic. And theblockade never has been effectual except on theEast African coast, and there only during the firsthalf of i88g, when Germany and England betweenthem managed it at an enormous expense. Theblockade on the West in the early part of the 15 226 The Slave-Trade century did not stop the traffic on that coast; it onlyceased when England took possession of the coastitself. Even taking possession of a part of the East. O la .^Q /j_Q So The shaded area is the region of slave-hunting. The inter-rupted line near the coast shows where slave caravans havebeen embarked as late as 1889. coast, as we are doing, and thus preventing the em-barkation of slaves from its ports, will again onlydivert the routes, as it did in West Africa; but of A Difficult Proble7n 227 course this diversion, with its consequent lengtheningof the route, will render the traffic more expensive,and so dimini,h, though not stop it. But indirectly,by cutting off the Zanzibar Arab from his supplies,this occupation of the coast will still further hinderthe traffic between it and the great lakes. To effectall this, the European rule on the coast must bereal at each seaport and each seaside village, andsuch probably will be the case in a very few years ;though the effect will be partially neutralised by theincreased use of the longer alternative routes, whichthe Arabs will still have through the Portugueselittor
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