THE ANGOLA SLAVERY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE ." SPECTATOR."]
beg to enclose for the information of your readers an extract from a letter sent me by an Englishman who has just returned from Angola after many years' residence in the country :—
"July 5.
DEAR NEviNsox,—I have just returned from Angola, and knowing your interest in the slave trade there, I will tell you the present situation.
In the first place, I am sorry to have to tell you that the slave trade itself is being carried on as shamelessly as when you were out. As I was coming down from the interior in May I saw boys and girls being sold close to a station some 400 miles from the coast; and at Lobito Bay an intermediate Portuguese steamer had already taken 150 slaves on board for San Thome.
Except for the traffic in slaves, trade is almost at a standstill, and the working on the proposed railway from Lobito Bay to Xatanga bag practically ceased at about 150 miles out of the 1,200. Owing to the boycott of San Thome cocoa there is strong ill-feeling against the very few Englishmen left in the country. But I must say that life is being made almost unbearable for the Boer settlers as well, and they think of returning to the Transvaal.
At the same time, in my opinion, the boycott of the cocoa is the most effective means of abolishing the slave system of labour on the islands, and I think the object would be gained if only the great American firms would stand in. In my belief, it would be quite possible to work the cocoa plantations with free native labour, if only the natives could place confidence in the Portuguese, and if only they could be assured of regular pay and a certain return to their homes after a year or eighteen months. That system has been followed with success on the railway, and, as you know, it has done very well on the Johannesburg mines. Some of the Portuguese officials whom I have met have told me that they were determined to put down the slavery at all costs, but owing to the size of the country and the powerful interests involved they have a difficult job before them.—Yours very truly,
X. Z."
It is evident from this letter that though the slave system is still maintained, the action in regard to the San Thome cocoa now proclaimed by English and many foreign manufacturers is, in the writer's opinion, likely to prove successful provided it is still further extended; and with this object we must all support your appeal to the American firms.—I am, Sir, &c.,
HENRY W. NEVINSON.
4 Downside Crescent, Hampstead, N. W.
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