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Updated: June 1, 2025
In addition to these were likewise any number of Malay prahus and "prams" from Borneo and Celebes and the Philippine Islands generally; Arab dhows and "grabs" from the Persian Gulf; English-captained, Lascar-manned trading vessels from Calcutta and Madras; fishing schooners from the Torres Straits and Sydney, laden with cargoes of sea-slugs, for Chinese consumption; besides merchant ships from every port in Europe although, I noticed that the British and American flags were decidedly in the ascendant.
Every now and then Tom kept looking out for Mr Matson's boat, and was not sorry to see her returning, though one of the dhows had escaped. "There is a chance still that the ship will pick her up," observed Tom. "We want his help to take care of the poor blacks, and to look after these Arabs. How to feed them all will be a puzzle." "I suppose there's food on board the dhow?" observed Desmond.
On board two of the captured dhows not more than three bags of grain were found to feed between eighty and a hundred people. At first the poor creatures, when placed on the man-of-war's deck, looked terrified in the extreme, but the kindness they received from the officers and seamen soon reassured them.
That night he had a still further taste of their quality. So soon as darkness fell, the dhows closed in again and recommenced their sniping. They kept under weigh, and so it did little enough good to aim back at the flashes. But Tazzuchi, with half a dozen keen spirits, got down into one of the boats with their rifles and knives, and a drum of paraffin, and pulled away silently into the blackness.
In this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating the sort of thing we were up against. The ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats down picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour, for which dhows were making like homing bees.
"What sufferings the poor little children have to endure; and then the agony of their parents as they are dragged off from their homes to die on their way to the sea, or on board those horrible dhows, or to be carried into slavery, which must be worse than death." Her remarks had greater influence on Charley than even the miserable state of the slaves on board the dhows had produced.
At last one shot struck our vessel, going through the side, and fearful were the cries which arose from the people below, who were wounded, or expected to be killed by other shots. I had been allowed to remain on deck, for the Arabs in their flight did not think about the slaves. I saw some of the dhows lower their sails, when boats from the big ship took possession of them.
Still, there was sufficient probability of their doing so to make Desmond and Tom, with all the men on the rock, watch the proceedings with intense interest. On flew the dhows, their bulging sails swelling in the breeze, and the white foam flying up under their low bows. Matson, the second lieutenant, commanded one of the boats, and the senior mate the other.
If that is the case, the dhows have not seen them, and fancy that the people on shore, whom they can't have failed to discover, have no means of getting off." "Faith, I hope that's the case," observed Desmond; "for if those Arabs who are coming this way were to find us out, they'd be after shooting at us in a somewhat unpleasant manner."
The distance across from Zanzibar to Bagamoyo may be about twenty-five miles, yet it took the dull and lazy dhows ten hours before they dropped anchor on the top of the coral reef plainly visible a few feet below the surface of the water, within a hundred yards of the beach.
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