ADAMS , Consul to By the President: J. C. Bancroft Davis, June 14, 1873

Mr. Adams to Mr. Davis.

Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 102, of January 1, I have now to communicate the result of inquiries, continued since that date, into the alleged existence of the slave-trade between Barhary and the Levant, via Malta.

The Crown advocate, Sir Adrian Dingli, having made a statement in council defending the government in the matter, I called upon him officially, to ask for any information he could give me. He replied to me at length, saying, substantially, that the government had long watched the movement of blacks through Malta; that the rules of the port had been applied with special stringency to vessels arriving from Barbary; that passengers landing from them had been kept under police supervision while here, and when embarking for the Levant, that frequently the police have inquired of the blacks whether they were free or slaves, and whether they wished to proceed with the persons in whose charge they were traveling, informing them at the same time that they were at liberty to go where they chose; finally, that owing to charges made upon the government, he had ordered that the conductors of the first parties of blacks arriving from Barbary should be prosecuted in the police-court for dealing in slaves; that such a trial had been held on November 14, 1872, and no evidence appearing to sustain the charge, the accused persons had been released. Sir Adrian concluded by saying that in his opinion it was doubtful if any traffic in slaves took place through Malta; and that in any event the local government had fulfilled its duty with the approval of the imperial government, the responsibility for the traffic, if any, lying elsewhere. He subsequently furnished to me translations of certain official papers, which are inclosed herewith, viz: examples of inquiries made and reported by the police, and a copy of the judicial proceedings of November 14, 1872.

Mr. Giacomo Psaila, adjutant of the interior police, the prosecutor in the action of November 14, made a statement to precisely the same effect. He is sure the blacks are no slaves, “the relation being without force and voluntary on both sides.” Mr. Luigi Aloisio, adjutant of marine police, who has conducted most of the investigations, stated that he has been thirty-two years in the force. Negroes, or Moors, had passed through here from Barbary to the Levant for many years, but the number has been greater since the opening of steam-lines to Barbary. A few come from Benghazi, or other small ports, but nearly all from Tripoli; most of them upon the Turkish steamer Trabulus Gharb of Tripoli, a much less number upon the Turkish steamer Villayet, a few upon other occasional steamers or sailing-vessels of different nationalities. They consist of women and children of both sexes; the language spoken by them is Turkish, Arabic, or Soudanese. They travel in companies of from two or three to ten or fifteen, sometimes being represented as the servants of ordinary passengers, but usually coming in charge of a padrone (master) or conductor, who is almost always a Turk of Tripoli or Constantinople. The same padrone who brings them from Barbary takes them to the Levant, no instance of changing masters here having been noticed. Several padroni have been observed to pass repeatedly, always accompanied by blacks, but never by the same blacks. While waiting to re-embark they resort to a lodging-house here kept by a Maltese, licensed by the authorities and under police inspection. They take deck-passage usually on British steamers for Alexandria, Smyrna, or Constantinople, mostly for the last-named port. Having long been suspicious of these persons, he called the attention of the authorities to the subject two years ago, and was ordered to inquire into it and report officially. He finds that the blacks individually, or sometimes the padroni for themselves and their suites, bear a passport from the authorities at Tripoli, or the port whence they arrive, but not viséd by the British consul. Very many blacks have been examined apart individually in Turkish, Arabic, or, when an interpreter could be had, in the tongue of Soudan. There have been one or two occasions where persons have been released from the padroni at their own request, but usually they profess to be free and desirous of continuing with the padroni. The largest number that ever came at one time was fifty-two, who arrived on the Trabulus Gharb, and proceeded in her to Constantinople, the vessel having, as he understood, been chartered for the voyage by the Pasha of Tripoli. His official observations and reports extend from January, 1872. He has reason to believe that formerly many blacks were brought here secretly, not appearing in the lists of passengers. Lately he has noticed that they seemed to have been previously instructed what replies to make to the questions of the police, often declaring before questioning that they are free and wish to go to Constantinople. He has no doubt at all that most of them are slaves purchased in Barbary to be resold in the Levant. I inclose three reports furnished to me by Mr. Aloisio, made by him to his superior officers, and a report of arrivals of Moors (blacks) since February 17, 1872. This last report, he explained to me, is of those who were suspected to be slaves.

Salvatore Borg stated to me that he has kept the lodging-house spoken of by Adjutant Aloisio for five years past. There are arrivals of blacks by nearly every steamer coming from Benghazi and Tripoli, and a few from Tunis. He reports, according to law, every arrival to the police, who frequently inspect his house. He has often talked with the padroni, and the women of his family with the black women, who will not converse with Christian men. To the question whether they were slaves, he replied, “S’intende, signore,” but in a later interview declared that he meant only to say they were servants, (“serve non schiave.”) He had never seen any constraint used by the padroni, who always accompany the blacks, nor any unwillingness in the latter to go with the padroni. Some of the padroni had been at his house several times, each time with a different party.

Amabile Grech, recently agent of the Turkish steamer Villayet, states that the blacks arrive by every steamer, but more in summer than in winter. It is notorious that they are slaves and that the principal person engaged in the traffic is the Pasha of Tripoli.

O. F. Golcher, A. Duncan & Co., A. Camilleri, and other agents of the various lines of British steamers calling here, state that they grant passage to any applicant unless notified by the police that there is a legal impediment upon his departure. They would not take slaves, knowing them to be so, and in a few cases had refused to take parties of blacks; but in general it is no part of their business to inquire into the character or condition of their passengers.

A trustworthy person, J. Azzopardi, whom I have privately employed for two or three months to inquire whether any persons residing in Malta are directly concerned in the traffic, tells me that Mr. L. Farragia, consul for Tunis, and recently for Turkey, is intimate with the padroni, and often aids them to secure passage for the Levant, which is the sum total of his discoveries.

I am inclined to think that the foregoing facts are all that can be discovered here, and probably all that there are. There is really no mystery in the matter, the padroni relying upon their passports and the ignorance and docility of the blacks as a sufficient safeguard. They have evidently been encouraged by the failure of police investigations, and come and go without any attempt at secrecy. I may add, however, that it seems to me that if the object of the authorities has been to ascertain the real character of the traffic, the case has been rather unskillfully managed, little attempt having been made to obtain other testimony than that of the supposed slaves themselves, from whom, owing to their gross ignorance, timidity, and religious scruples, no trustworthy evidence could well be expected; while, even in the rare cases of those who have been released, nothing seems to have been sought for beyond their declaration that they were under constraint and desired to be set free. But I think it quite certain that decisive proofs are to be had only at the termini of the route in Barbary, where the blacks are obtained, or in the Levant, where they are finally disposed of. All that can be obtained in Malta is likely to be purely circumstantial evidence, which may be summed up as follows: 1. The movement is entirely in one direction, from Barbary to the Levant, no Moors, or nearly none, going the other way; 2. The Moors are all women or children; 3. There are persons whose regular employment seems to be the conducting of these parties to the east.

Finally, with the exceptions noted above, it is the conviction of all persons whom I have questioned, and, I am assured, the general conviction of the public, that the most of the blacks are slaves; and many persons, official and others, do not fail to comment on the extreme absurdity of the recent mission to Zanzibar, and other costly attempts to suppress on foreign soil or waters a traffic which daily passes in all security through the principal military possessions of Great Britain and under the eyes of her representatives in a dozen different ports of the Mediterranean.

I am, &c.,