Zanzibar, Ivory, Copal, Slaves [pp. 426-427]

42:3 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
care. Cotton on tihe bluff, 3031 bales; in the sheds and presses, 21,648; estimated amount in private storage, 1500 bales. Total, 29,179 bales. The clerks of
sheds reported receipts decreasing on the last month, but cotton accumulating
since the nevws of a decline in Europe. The total receipts of cotton during the
month of January, by river, were 5575 bales; by Charleston railroad, 3582
bales; by Ohio railroad, 3476 b)ales. Total by river and two railroads, 12,938
bales. Total shipment during January, 12,123 bales against 23,723 bales in December. Shipments of the last week, 3296 bales the week before. The December receipts by river wvere 6902 bales.
The following is a Statement of the shipments from this port for eachal montlh of
the year 1865:
Bales.
January.................................... 8,179
February..................................... 9,752
March....................................... 13,544
April........................................ 5,306
JMay....................................... 13,280
June........................................ 11,185
July....................................... 13,228
August..................................... 16,587
September.................................. 18,630
October.................................. 28,524
November.................................. 17,962
December.................................. 22,723
Total.................................. 180,900
Weighing 84.459,763 pounds.
8.-ZANZIBAR; IVORY; COPAL; SLAVES.
From a recent report of the New York Statistical Society we take the following, condensed from a letter written by Captain Wm. E. Hines:
The population of Zanzibar is supposed to be about 2,000,000), three fifths of
which are negro slaves. One peculiarity of slavery here is, that any slave can
own a slave or as many as he please,. I know of cases where slaves own more
slaves than their masters, yet a master by no means claims these as his property, nor does lie claim any moiety of what the slave earns by his own slave.
These aire nice distinctions, considering-them as property. I have known, during my residence here, of.17,000 slaves brought from Keelwa in one year.
During the past year, I presume, that 10,(i00 will be about the number imported.
This traffic is permitted by treaty with England, between Keelwa and Zanzibar,
but once outside of this latitude, English cruisers are always ready to pick
them up as leg-al prizes. This island is probably the largest clove-producing
country in the world. Ivory is broughlt here fronm Keelwa, and it comes largely
from the Lake Tangancka. During the last twelve months there was expo,ted
to the United States. say 143,000 pounds o(f prime ivory, averaging more than
70 pound billiard balls, say 27,870 pounds; to England, say 75,000 pounds; and
to India. say 250,000 pounds. This to India includes every quality, that to tlhe
United States only of the very best. This trade to Zanzibar is in the hands of
the American houses. The purest and best gumn-copal in the world is found on
the main land of Africa, near Zanzibar. It is, without doubt, a fossil gum. It
is dug from the earth by negoroes. It is then cleaned with a solution of soda-ash
and lime, and put up carefully in boxes, when it is ready for the home market.
At the diggings are not found any copal trees or even any signs of any, and to
this time it is a mere conjecture in what ages these deposits of copal were made;
probably many thousand years ago. There are gum copal trees on the coast
and on the island, but the gum from them is not a marketable article at all, and
when mixed with the fossil gum, is always rejected. Without doubt, the quality
of that drug is made as pure as it is by the chemical action of the peculiar kind
of earth in which it is buried. Copal dug before the rains is always more impure and dirty than that dug after the rains, because it is more of a surface gum;