At the height of the slave trade, the strongest demand was for young adult labour, both male and female, but children - here defined as youths under 14 years of age - were also always sought. Unable to defend themselves from armed adults, children were easy prey for raiders and for senior authorities within their own extended families. Children were also valued because they had not yet acquired the habits of adulthood or the customs of their ethnic origins and were therefore more malleable once enslaved. Their ability to learn the languages of their 'masters' was equally enhanced by their young minds. To take but one example, in 1835 a British India official reported, 'The demand for African boys in Cutch [western Gujarat] is stated to be very great. They are there taught all the mechanical arts, and become most useful members of the community'. ${ }^{1}$ With the gradual imposition of anti-slave trade treaties on Zanzibar and the slight progress being made towards abolition by the Portuguese in Mozambique, the attraction for slavers of seizing children to be transported during the 'illegal' period of the slave trade was further increased. According to an 1867 report by a member of the British anti-slave-trade patrol,  
The second day after leaving Zanzibar we took a dhow with 150 slaves, almost all children, or boys under fourteen; and as they had only just started they were in good  
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[^0]:    1 British Library, India Office Records. 1 December 1835. MSS Eur E 293/125 (Willoughby Papers), Memorandum: On the Slave Trade to Cutch and Katthywar, para. 7.  
health, all but a few, who are significantly called lanterns by the sailors, because, I suppose, you can almost see through them. ${ }^{2}$