A GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF ZANZIBAR.
| Exports. | Imports. | ||
| Slaves. | Surat cloth |  | From Cutch. |
| Ivory. | Dungaree cloth | ||
| Drugs. | Iron | | from Bombay. |
| Coir. | Sugar and rice | ||
| Cocoa-nuts. | Salt fish and Ghee, from Socotra. | ||
| Beeswax. | Cloths, cotton | | From Surat. |
| Tortoise-shell. | China ware | ||
| Earthen jars | |||
| Toys and ornaments | |||
| Rice, from Pemba. | |||
| Dates, from Gulf of Persia. | |||
| Slaves, ivory, and drugs | | From the African Coast. | |
| Beeswax and | |||
| Tortoise shell | |||
The inhabitants of Zanzibar consist of Arabs, descendants of Arabs from Souallie mothers. The Arabs are not very numerous; but the principal part of the slaves and landed property belong to them. A considerable number of Banians likewise reside in the town, many of whom appear to be wealthy, and hold the best part of the trade in their hands. The Souallies form by far the major part of the population, and are almost all slaves to the Arabs—800 or 900 of them sometimes belonging to one individual. They are in general purchased[purchased] in their native country on the opposite shores, when young, and are brought here by the slave merchants, who dispose of them either to the Arabs or to the merchants, &c., for exportation. Those are fortunate who fall into the hands of Arabs, who are justly famed for their mild treatment of their slaves. They are allowed a small habitation on their master’s estate; and not being overworked, and the fertile soil furnishing with little trouble the means for their subsistence, they seem to enjoy a considerable portion of contentment and happiness—a strong proof of which is, that they propagate freely.
All, however, are not equally well situated; and the advocates for the slave-trade ought to witness the market of Zanzibar, after which, if they possess the slightest spark of generous feeling, I will answer for an alteration in their present opinion. The show commences about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The slaves, set off to the best advantage by having their skins cleaned, and burnished with cocoa—nut oil, their faces painted with red and white stripes, which is here esteemed elegance, and the hands, noses, ears, and feet, ornamented with a profusion of bracelets of gold and silver and jewels, are ranged in a line, commencing with the youngest, and increasing to the rear according to their size and age. At the head of this file, which is composed of all sexes and ages from 6 to 60, walks the person who owns them; behind, and at each side, two or three of his domestic slaves, armed with swords and spears, serve as a guard. Thus ordered, the procession begins, and passes through the market-place and principal streets; the owner holding forth, in a kind of song, the good qualities of his slaves and the high prices that have been offered for them. When any of them strikes a spectator’s fancy the line immediately stops, and a process of examination ensues, which, for minuteness, is unequalled in any cattle market in Europe. The intending purchaser having ascertained there is no defect in the faculties of speech, hearing, &c., that there is no disease present, and that the slave does not snore in sleeping, which is counted a very great fault, next proceeds to examine the person: the mouth and teeth are first inspected, and afterwards every part of the body in succession, not even excepting the breasts, &c., of the girls, many of whom I have seen handled in the most indecent manner in the public market by their purchasers; indeed, there is every reason to believe that the slave-dealers almost universally force the young females to submit to their lust previous to their being disposed of. The slave is then made to run or walk a little way, to show there is no defect about the feet; and after which, if the price be agreed to, they are stripped of their finery and delivered over to their future master. I have frequently counted between twenty and thirty of these files in the market, some of which contained about thirty. Women with children newly-born, hanging at their breasts, and others so old they can scarcely walk, are sometimes seen dragged about in this manner. I observed they had in general a very dejected look; some groups appeared so ill-fed that their bones seemed as if ready to penetrate the skin. From such scenes one turns away with pity and indignation, and while he execrates the conductor of this infamous traffic, blushes that his country should ever have sanctioned such iniquity, and remembers with exultation the men who freed her from so great a disgrace.
The number of inhabitants on the island may be estimated at 200,000 ([Note 22]), three-fourths of whom at least are slaves. The Souallee tribe appears to have sprung from a mixture of Galla negroes, Arabs, natives of India, &c. They inhabit that portion of the African coast extending from the equator to the Mozambique as the Soomallie tribes do that on the north, stretching to the Cape Guardafui; their country is, however, confined to a narrow tract along the sea-coast, the district behind belonging to the Galla ([Note 23]), who are also divided into two different kinds—those living north of the line behind the Somallies are denominated Borran Galla; those on the south side behind the Souallies are distinguished by the term Carratche. Whether these differ much in person or manners I have been unable to learn.
The Souallies have much more of the negro appearance than the Soomallies; they have both woolly hair, and their skins are of a deep black, but the Soomallie has neither the flat nose nor thick lips which distinguishes the negro, and which is a very prominent feature among the Souallies of Zanzibar. The Soomallies are also to be distinguished by their slender make, which renders them more active, and they possess a superior degree of vivacity to the others, who appear to be of a grave character. With regard to the religion and peculiar customs of these people, we had little opportunities of becoming acquainted with them. The Souallies of Zanzibar being under the sway of Arabs, in general adopt their manners; and as to religion, those who profess any, I believe, follow them in that likewise.
We did not observe that any of their domestic customs were singular enough to deserve a particular description, except one, which, though not peculiar to them, is perhaps carried to a greater length than in most other places. I allude to the manner in which they inter, or rather, expose, their dead. It is a habit all over the town to bury amongst the houses, commonly under a tree, close to the deceased person’s former habitation, which presents to a stranger the appearance of a churchyard, and it would be well if the eye alone was the only organ offended. Though the Arabs and wealthy are properly covered, and have neat tombs erected over them, the poor are only wrapped up in a mat, and have scarce sufficient sand thrown over the corpse to hide it from the view; indeed, some part of it is generally to be seen sticking through, and as to the slaves, they are often laid out to putrefy on the beach,[[128]] not a single rag of cloth or handful of earth being laid over them. In consequence of this disgusting practice the stench in and about the town is intolerable; and co-operating with the noxious effluvia which arises from the putrid vegetable matter during the rainy season, tends to produce fever and fluxes, which, we learned, make annually during that period dreadful ravages among the inhabitants.
The English have hitherto had very little communication with Zanzibar, though the French are frequently in the habit of coming there from the Mauritius for slaves and Mocha coffee. Previous to our arrival only one English vessel had touched at the island since Admiral Blankett’s squadron was there in 1799, on his passage up the coast to the Red Sea. Captain Bissel, whose account of that expedition is published by Dalrymple, says they were told no British ships had been there previous to that, within the memory of the oldest person then living, and that they found the natives of the inferior order so ignorant of the value of coin, as to prefer, in their exchanges, a gilt button to a guinea. This might have been the case then I will not dispute; but we not only found them well acquainted with money, but as dexterous at over-reaching in a bargain and exorbitant in their demands as any dealer in the bazaar of Bombay. They were, however, as he justly observes, very civil and hospitable, though not so much as he describes; but this difference was probably owing to the dislike which the Hakim showed to us. Our taking no hand in the slave-trade was remarked to have considerable influence among the generality of the lower people in giving them a favourable impression of our character, and for a contrary reason they never failed to execrate the French, notwithstanding they were favourites of their Hakims.
The soil of the island is in general light and sandy towards the coast, but a little inland it is found to be a rich black mould, seemingly composed of decayed vegetation, and the numerous springs and periodical rains, with the excellent shelter afforded by the cocoa-nut trees, which everywhere cover the island, all conspire to render it extremely fruitful. Nothing can exceed the profusion of fruits abounding in every quarter, all of them excellent. Pine-apples of the most delicious sort are growing everywhere wild, and heaps of oranges, guavas, &c., for want of consumers, are left to rot on the ground which produced them. The following are the principal fruits and vegetable productions of the island, viz.: pine-apples, guavas, mangoes, lemons, limes, oranges, plantains, bananas, pomegranates (a few imported by the Arabs), cocoa-nuts, and many others, sugar-canes ([Note 24]), pumpkins, onions, sweet potatoes, and the root of a plant which is called by the natives mahogo (the Farina de pás[[129]] of the Portuguese).
Why the natives do not cultivate grain is hard to conceive; perhaps the great plenty of the cocoa-nuts and the mahogo, with the profusion of fruit, supersedes the necessity, and renders them averse to the labour, of raising corn, although their country must be exceedingly well adapted to it. The mahogo, which is the principal article of diet, is eaten by them either simply roasted or boiled, or it is cut into small pieces, which, being dried in the sun, is ground into flour, of which is made a very palatable kind of bread.
The operations of agriculture are not numerous, and indeed consist chiefly in clearing the ground; this is done by fire, and seems to be the practice throughout Africa. Within the tropics, where the luxuriancy of vegetation is so great, it would be a work of great labour, if not an absolute impossibility, to get rid of this in any other way. The time of doing it is at the end of the dry season, when the crops are collected and the rains are about to set in. In coming down the coast we observed fires all along the fertile country south of the line.
Asses and camels are the only beasts of burthen ([Note 25]), and being scarce, are very valuable; horses have been imported by the Arabs, but will not live. Bullocks and goats ([Note 26]) are good and in plenty, and can be procured for a moderate price; a good bullock fetches from ten to twelve dollars in the town, but might probably be got for much less in the country. The rest of their quadrupeds are cats and monkeys of various species. There are scarcely any dogs on the island, the Souallies having a great aversion to them. When a dog accidentally touches one of these people, he shows signs of loathing and abhorrence.[[130]]
Poultry is plentiful and cheap; sixteen large or eighteen small fowls may be bought for a dollar; but, what is a little extraordinary, eggs are both scarce and dear, and when procured are generally bad: they have also Muscovy ducks and Guinea-fowl, which last are found wild on the island. The variety of birds and wild fowl is not great. The principal are the whistling duck and curlews, and the ibis of the ancients, so numerous on the banks of the Nile, pigeons, doves, and a few others.
Spanish dollars and German crowns are the coins commonly current among them; and though they will take some others, they prefer these. Among the shoals and rocks which connect the small islands that surround the harbour, and in the harbour itself, delicious fish of great variety are usually taken in plenty, either with nets or with the line and hook; and those who will take the trouble to examine the shoals at low-water during spring-tides, will find their labour amply repaid by a collection of curious and rare shells, which for beauty are not to be surpassed by any in the known world.
Notwithstanding the heat of the climate, the vast quantity of wood, and filthy manners of the inhabitants, it does not appear that Zanzibar is an unhealthy island, except during the rainy season, when fevers and fluxes are, from the above causes, very prevalent, but which by proper regulations might be easily obviated. In a place where there is no medical assistance or receptacles for the diseased, it may be supposed numerous miserable objects would be met with; this, however, is not the case. In walking about the town, I did not remark a larger proportion of these unfortunate beings than is generally to be met with in most of our own settlements in India.
Exclusive of fevers, dysentery, and their consequences, such as dropsy, obstruction, &c., no other disease appeared to be frequent except venereal, under which, in all its stages and forms, a very great number of persons laboured. Their fevers are often of the remittent form, but more frequently of the intermittent kind; and in addition to the consequences already noticed to follow them, sometimes terminate in an unusual weakness and pains over the body, particularly of the lower extremities, which cause sometimes a total loss of power.[[131]] I am unable with certainty to determine the cause of this; perhaps it may arise from their sleeping on wet or damp ground while confined with these disorders.
The small-pox,—that scourge of the human race,—also often visits the natives of Zanzibar. We were told that about two years ago it made dreadful ravages all over the island: 15,000 ([Note 27]) are said to have perished in the town alone. This intelligence led me to hope they would receive with avidity any proposal to secure them from the effects of so dreadful a visitation. Though the vaccine matter brought from Bombay was now nearly eleven weeks old, and I consequently had great doubts of its power, I was resolved to let slip no opportunity of trying to introduce it among them. I therefore proposed it to the Hakim at our first interview, confident that it would be eagerly solicited by those who had children and young slaves belonging to them. In this, however, I was much disappointed; for though their interest and the safety of their offspring were at stake, I had the mortification to find their prejudices stronger than the sense of either, and it was with the utmost difficulty I could procure leave to try it on two children. They were inoculated twice over, without being able to produce the disease; but I had no great reason to regret my failure, for I afterwards heard that the French, who, on purchasing young slaves, always vaccinate them, had often introduced it among the inhabitants, but that it had been found impossible to propagate it. Is not this astonishing, that a people with whom self-interest is a stronger passion than any other, should be under the influence of motives which cause them to act in direct opposition to it? One person—he who had allowed me to inoculate his children—acknowledged he himself had lost no less than thirty young slaves during the late prevalence of the disease. Perhaps the indifference they show at the proposal of a preventative remedy arises from a want of faith in its efficacy.
We now began to think of setting out on our return along the coast to Mocha; the wind had begun to set in steady from the S.W., and our consort, the Sylph, which it had been deemed advisable to convert into a brig, being ready to return to Bombay, whither we had orders to send her, we were about to depart, when a circumstance occurred which for some time delayed it.
The Surat merchants, who had often complained of the Hakim’s treatment, represented that he had demanded 3500 crowns from them as their proportion of the tribute exacted by the Imam of Muscat, and in failure of payment had threatened them with imprisonment. As these people were trading under the English flag, and were, in fact, British subjects, Captain Smee did not conceive that a foreign prince had any right to tax them, especially as they had already paid the customary port dues. Impressed with these sentiments, he made a representation to the Hakim, who in consequence withdrew his claims, but privately threatened the merchants with a double imposition after our departure.
To prevent this, it was determined to leave the Sylph to countenance them during their stay, and convoy them across to India at the breaking up of the rainy season. While the Hakim, who had been extremely inimical to us during our stay, and always anxious for us to be gone, informed us he was coming to return our visit; this he had on various pretences heretofore delayed; however, on Sunday, the 7th April, he came on board, when both ships dressed and saluted him, and he was, notwithstanding his ill-behaviour, treated with the greatest attention.
On Tuesday, the 9th, we weighed and sailed from Zanzibar, and in the evening came to anchor under the small Island of Timbat, at the north end of the island. On the morning of this day Henry Golding, a stout, healthy seaman, was found dead between decks: he had no known complaint at the time, and his death was supposed to have been caused by suffocation, as it was understood he went to sleep very much intoxicated. Having interred him on Frenchman’s Island, the watering boat returned on board, and reported they had found the body of a young female recently murdered, lying among the bushes at the freshwater stream; as they had no means of interesting the neighbours in her fate, they buried her immediately. On Wednesday, the 10th, we got under weigh, and passing between Pemba and the mainland, where there is a fine broad channel, we, without anything further remarkable occurring, anchored in Mocha Roads on the 26th April, 1811.
RESUMÉ.
I fell in with the coast of Africa in lat. 9° 30′ N. on the 25th January, and from hence southward examined it as well as circumstances would permit. On the 7th February I anchored in Patta Harbour, and unfortunately found the country distracted by civil dissensions, originating from two rival cousins, who each laid claim to the Sooltanship. I found out the most popular, which happened to be the youngest, and on him I waited with my government letters, accompanied by Lieut. Hardy commanding the Sylph, and Mr Whigham, my surgeon. I must have been three or four hours reaching town, and after as long a detention there, and receiving some menacing insults, which will be particularly detailed on my return, I escaped from these wretches and reached the ship, much fatigued, some time after midnight, having been six hours in the boat returning. Finding the disposition of the natives precluded the success of any inquiries I had to make, it was deemed advisable to quit the port; but another difficulty arose, which points out the cunning treachery of these people: we were now told the vessel could not go out through the S.W. Channel (the only condition on which I entered the harbour), but must warp out the way we came in (a thing impossible against the prevailing wind and sea), or that we must wait the change of monsoon. Detecting their duplicity, I seized and detained two natives, who were concerned in bringing us in, and after two or three days spent in buoying off a channel unknown to them, with the top of high-water spring tides, grounding occasionally, we got the vessel providentially through the banks, and clear of Patta reefs, and then discharged the natives. Hence we proceeded southward along the coast, and on the 24th of February anchored in this fine harbour.
I waited on the Hakim and was kindly received; but the general conduct of this personage has since proved very unaccommodating. I was desirous during my stay here of procuring a house for the purpose of receiving the visits of the well-disposed, and unsuccessfully applied to the Hakim for one, or the use of a French factory for a few days. I am told he forbid any one to furnish me, and has used every endeavour to keep visitors away from the ship. He is a person warmly in the French interest, and derives great pecuniary advantages from the trade to this port. The welcome news of the capture of the Isle of France was brought here by the Surat vessels, which arrived in the middle of March. The Hakim would not credit the account, until it was confirmed by a ship from Muscat a few days ago.
The sum of the information I have been able to collect along the East Coast of Africa and at this port, is, I am sorry to say, very small. The first object of my search was the Doara river, which I was not fortunate enough to fall in with, from the strength of the prevailing winds and currents; if it exists it is doubtless a very small stream. Magadosho, in lat. 2° 3′ N., I could only ascertain the situation of: drifted past this. I hoped to see the town of Marca, but was disappointed. I have been informed that it is a very small village, less than Magadosho or Brava; that it has little or no trade. I arrived off the port of Brava, in lat. 1° 10′ N. under the same impediments—a high wind and sea, and strong currents, but expected to find shelter from the plan I had of its harbour; however, in standing close in for the purpose of anchoring, I was disappointed to find it was impossible to bring the vessels up without imminent risk of parting and being driven on shore, which compelled me to haul off. I then looked for the river mentioned in my instructions, whose supposed situation was to be found in 5′ N. lat., but I could find no entrance whatever in that parallel. The wind moderating on the line, I anchored the vessels on the eve of the 3rd of February, with a view of exploring the river called Dos Fuegos, and rendered into English by the late Capt. Bisset, ‘Rogues River.’ During the night the Sylph parted her cable, and was driven past this entrance, whose situation I could only geographically ascertain. The town of Juba and the bar were distinctly seen in passing from hence to Patta. The coast is fortified by a chain of islands, mostly connected by reefs. Our transactions and inquiries at the latter port were checked by the unfriendly disposition of the natives. After clearing Patta, we proceeded southward along the coast,—ascertaining it, also the two points of Formosa Bay, the Leopard’s Shoal, and the mosque near it, with Quiliffa River, the town and harbour of Mombas, the islands of Pemba (or Gedree)[[132]] according to the Arabs, and Zanzibar, and the site of the coast between these places.
My study has been to cultivate the friendship of all ranks, with a view of gaining information on the points government have instructed me; and the result of my labours amounts to the following, the accuracy of which, as far as I can judge, there is no reason to doubt. The fate of our countrymen, Park, Hornemann, and their companions, was my first and most anxious inquiry, both at Patta and this place, but I have not succeeded in meeting with any person who has the least knowledge of them, and there is every reason to suppose their fate is entirely unknown on this coast.
The town of Magadosho ([Note 28]) is not very considerable; it may contain 150 or 200 houses, and from its mosques is very conspicuous from seaward. It has not any river near it,[[133]] and has but little trade, probably on account of the badness of its port, which only affords shelter for boats within a reef fronting the town. The town of Marca ([Note 29]) is small and has no safe anchorage off it.
Brava town ([Note 30]) is composed of about 100 huts, and is as defective in its port as Magadosho. They are severally governed by Soomallie chiefs. The mouth of Rogues River, called Govinda by the Soomallies, Joob (Gibb) by the Arabs, and Foombo by the Souallies, in lat. 0° 13′ S., is a large and extensive river, but on account of its shallow bar, boats can only enter it at high water; it has scarcely any trade, but such as is carried on by a few country boats, the natives on its banks being thieves inimical to all strangers. The next principal river, called Oazee,[[134]] situated one day’s journey south of the Isles of Patta and Lamoo, is also extensive, without trade. Quiliffa, the next, in lat. 3° 26′ S., is a large and deep fresh-water stream, with few inhabitants and no trade. Foongaruy[[135]] river, off the N.W. end of Zanzibar Island, is next; it is in about lat. 5° 45′ S. Leefeege[[136]] is another large river opposite Moonfia Island; and there is also a considerable stream off the port of Quiloa or Keelwa.[[137]] Along this extent of coast are many minor streams, but not one seems to possess advantages as places of mercantile resort, or the Arabs would, no doubt, ere this have benefited by any trade they held out. The tides flow up the larger streams one day’s journey from their mouths, and it is confidently reported they all take their rise among the mountains in Abyssinia.
Five or six coss, or about one day’s journey at the back of the towns of Magadosho, Marca, and Brava, is situated a small stream called the Doho;[[138]] it does not join the Govinda, being lost among some hills before it reaches so far south. It appears to me to be (from the accounts of the reporter, an intelligent Soomallie) a branch of the Zeebee,[[139]] which he calls the Dawaha, where the Doho joins. The other, and principal branch, he says, runs through Africa, and disembogues on the coast of Adel, near Burburreea.[[140]]
The town of Gunnanee, on the right bank of the Govinda, is about four weeks’ journey from Brava; its inhabitants are Soomallies, and it is composed of about 300 huts. Surat cloths are taken to it from the coast, and exchanged for slaves, elephants’ teeth, &c. There is another considerable village called Leeween, on the left of the Govinda, some distance inland from that stream, inhabited by negroes of no professed religion. The Eesoomadoo Galla, a race of cannibals, the Oombaney, Howwahsow, and Arrooseeya Galla tribes, intermixed with Soomallies, inhabit the banks of the Dahawa, nearest the sea-coast; they do not cultivate the ground, but subsist on meat, milk, and herbs. The Guracha[[141]] Galla inhabit the interior south of the line, and the Borran[[142]] Galla north of the line; their language is nearly similar; they are represented to be cannibals and cruel thieves. The inhabitants opposite Zanzibar are Wuddooa[[143]] negroes, but there is reason to believe this part of the coast was formerly inhabited by the Guracha Galla, or, as my instructions style them, the Giagas.[[144]] The Soomallies inhabit the sea-coast from the equator north round Cape Guardafui to Burburreea and Zeylah; their possessions extend some distance inland. The Souallies, on the contrary, are confined close to the sea-coast, and inhabit that part of it from the line south to about Cape Delgado, tribes of Caffres occasionally intervening, particularly to the southward of Zanzibar. The various tribes of negroes brought to this port for sale are too numerous to describe; the principal are the Meeamaizees,[[145]] whose country, at three months’ distance, abounds in elephants’ teeth, and some gold is found there.
The Muckwa,[[146]] whose country is two months’ journey distant from the sea-coast.
The Meeyahoo[[147]] is fifty days’ journey off the Gooroo[[148]]—is fifteen days inland.
The Dohai,[[149]] ten days from the coast, are cannibals.
The Meegeendoo[[150]] are situated one months’ journey from the sea-port of Quiloa.
The Jiggua,[[151]] four days, and the Moozumbarree,[[152]] three days, &c. The interior is represented as a most fertile country, abounding in cattle and elephants.
I have not been able to gather any satisfactory information regarding the River Zambesie, its course, the town of Sofala, character of its natives, or description of the surrounding country. The Christian States of Yufat and Shoa on the confines of Abyssinia, with the large towns of Tombuctoo, Cashna, and Hoossayee, said to be in the interior of Africa or Ethiopia, under the government of Mussulman princes, together with the circumstances relative to the triennial voyages of Solomon’s fleet, from the Eslantic[[153]] Gulf to Ophir, are unknown to the inhabitants of this place; nor have I yet met with one who could afford me any satisfactory accounts of the River Niger, or Joliba, or the Nile of Soudan, or South Africa.
I have made lists of the Souallie, Soomallie, and Galla dialects, and shall add such others as I may be able to collect.
The coast from Cape Guardafui to Magadosho is arid and sterile; not a hut or a boat was to be seen, although the sea-shore abounds with fish. From the latter place the land improves, and on the line it becomes completely woody, and so continues far to the southward.
The trade of this coast is chiefly in the hands of the Arabs from Muscat, Maculla, &c., and a few adventurers from Cutch and the coast of Scinde. The principal imports at Zanzibar are Surat cloths, to the amount of about 12 lacs of rupees annually, besides beads, cotton, sugar, ghee, fish, dates, and grain, and about 200 candies of iron bar, which is partly distributed for use along the coast. English woollens are in no demand, consequently not imported. The exports are slaves, elephants’ teeth, raw dammer,[[154]] rhinoceros’ hides and horns, cowries, wax, turtle shells, coir, cocoa-nuts, &c. The duties collected here on merchandise are said to amount to about one and a half lacs of dollars annually; but as imposition and extortion are occasionally resorted to, they may be considerably more. The Imaum of Muscat receives from hence a clear sum of 60,000 dollars, and yearly makes an additional levy on various pretexts. The following is a list of trading vessels at Zanzibar at the end of March, 1811. Two ships, two snows, three ketches, 21 dows, 15 buglas, four dingeys, 10 small boats of sizes, besides a variety of country boats constantly arriving and departing, and two large boats building. Some seasons upwards of 100 large dows, &c., have been known to arrive at this port from Arabia and India, but its trade appears on the decline, while that of the ports of Mombas and Lamoo belonging to independent Arab chiefs is annually improving, although as harbours they do not possess near the advantages that Zanzibar does.
The dress of the people in general is a coloured wrapper round their loins. The better sort have, in addition, a loose white cloth over their shoulders, and round their body. The Arabs wear turbans, while the Souallies, Soomallies, and negroes go bareheaded.
The port of Patta, in lat. 2° 8′ S., has little or no trade on account of the intricacy of its harbours and the nefarious conduct of its inhabitants. It would appear the Surat traders are subject to much imposition and extortion at Zanzibar, as the Hakim, over and above the usual duties of 5 per cent., seizes such part of their cargoes as he fancies; and the maquedahs[[155]] of the three vessels now here have declared to me that, in collecting the duties on Surat goods imported, he is not guided by any invoice prices, but fixes a valuation on them far below the prime cost from the hands of the manufacturer; and as he (the Hakim) pays himself in kind, takes good care to detain for his own use such articles as are most saleable at the time, by which means the merchant pays on an average 15 per cent., and sometimes more, beyond the established rates fixed by the Imaum of Muscat.
(Signed) Thomas Smee, Commander.
On Board the H. C.’s ship Ternate,
Zanzibar Harbour, 6th April, 1811.
NOTES TO APPENDIX III.
BY CAPT. SMEE AND LIEUT. HARDY.
[Note 1] (p. 460). Socotra, or Socotora, so well known for the production of the drug aloes, is in most charts, except Horsburgh’s, laid down too far to the westward. It bears E. by N. of Cape Guardafui 138 miles, the latter being in long 51° 13′ E., and the western extremity of Socotra in long. 53° 26′ and lat. 12° 24′ N. It has several good harbours and anchoring-places, the best of which is said to be Tivee, on the N. E. side of the Island, where water is easily procured. Between it and Cape Guardafui are situated the Isles of Sumhaa and Duraga, or, as we name them, the Brothers and Adulcasia, all of which are also placed too much to the westward in the charts. The last-mentioned island is said to afford plenty of excellent fresh water. It is inhabited by Arabs, who are subject to the chief of Socotra. Socotra is governed by an Arab Sheik. The produce of the island being insufficient to support the population, the ports of Arabia furnish it with grain, &c., &c. I believe that aloes, fish, and salt are the only articles it produces. The inhabitants are chiefly Arabs.
[Note 2] (p. 466). Since the 25th we had been steering along that part of the African Continent known to the English by the name of Agan.[[156]] It is in general a low even coast, and is justly represented as desert and barren. In passing along it some natives were seen tending a few cattle on the shore, but there is reason to believe, from the apparent extreme infertility of the sand, that the number of inhabitants can be but very small;[[157]] even the sea-shore, where the abundance of fish would render the means of subsistence so easy to be attained, seemed totally neglected; not a hut or boat of any kind was to be seen throughout its whole extent—a strong proof of the thinness of the population, and of the country near the coast being destitute of the material requisite for constructing these necessaries. The few inhabitants probably belong to the Saumalie tribe, whose limits of residence are said to extend to the line. We did not remark any inlets or traces of rivers on this coast.
[Note 3] (p. 467). A little north of Cape Bassas is a hill, or long ridge, of an uncommon red colour, and along the land from it to the Cape itself are a number of white sand hillocks which form excellent marks to vessels approaching it from the northward and eastward.
[Note 4] (p. 468). From the information afterwards received the Doara seems to be an inconsiderable stream.
[Note 5] (p. 470). We afterwards discovered these to be really islands, and the commencement of the chain which extends beyond Patta.
[Note 6] (p. 471). The opinion upon which the existence of this supposed river rests[[158]] is founded on certain accounts transmitted some time ago to the Governor of Bombay by the late Captain David Seton, the Company’s resident at Muscat. This communication states the information to have been obtained from some people of respectability in that place, who were well acquainted with the part of the African coast in question. The substance of this detail is as follows:—‘That a river of immense extent, known to the natives in its neighbourhood by the appellation of the Neelo (Nilo), and said to have its source in common with the Egyptian river of that name, discharges itself in the Indian Ocean, in about 0° 5′ N. lat.; near to its mouth it is called Govind Khala. That the length of its course is about three months’ journey; and nine weeks’ journey from the mouth stands a large city named Gunamma,[[159]] up to which, the river being navigable, immense quantities of slaves, elephants’ teeth, &c., are brought down within a short distance of Brava, to which (the river then taking a more southerly direction) these articles of merchandise are afterwards carried overland, and either disposed of there, or sent to Zanzibar.’ This story, though sufficiently plausible, would of itself, considering the known credulity and extreme propensity to exaggeration prevalent among the natives of the East, be entitled to very little regard did it not happen to receive some countenance from Herodotus, the Grecian historian, who says that when in Egypt he was told that a branch of the Nile bearing the same name took an easterly course, and was supposed to fall into the Indian Ocean, somewhere on the coast of East Africa.[[160]] These taken together were strong, but still left ample room to believe that the river called by the Portuguese Dos Fuegos, and known to us by the name of the Rogues River, which disembogues itself in 0° 17′ S. lat., might eventually turn out to be the same with this African Nile,[[161]]—22 miles the difference between their supposed mouths, being an error which people such as those of Muscat, unaccustomed to make accurate observations, may easily be supposed to fall into. It may here be seen that the truth of this surmise respecting the identity of the two rivers has been clearly established, though it will hereafter appear, from the information received at Patta, that the source of this river, viz. Dos Fuegos, will still be found to agree with and authenticate the reports and conjectures derived from the above authority,—and at all events cannot fail to render it an object of interest and curiosity to the civilized world in general.
[Note 7] (p. 474). Or rather to the island on which Patta and Sieull stand, called Peer Patta.
[Note 8] (p. 474). This town is by the natives called Humoo.
[Note 9] (p. 476). Amounting in value to better than Rs 300.
[Note 10] (p. 479). His cousin was at this moment held in confinement in a dungeon close to the residence of this cruel and usurping relation, for it seems Ben Baneeci had a prior claim to the Sultanship.
[Note 11] (p. 481). The people of Patta (besides their civil dissensions) were at this time at war with Lamo, an island a few miles to the southward, whose boats were continually on the look-out to attack those of Patta. The Sooltan made this also a motive for detaining us under the pretence of preparing an armed boat to conduct us back to the ship; but we saw through his civility, and evaded it by telling him we had arms, and could defend ourselves. Patta has no trade at present; it used formerly to be resorted to for cowries (a small shell current as money in Bengal), but of late years this trade has been discontinued.
[Note 12] (p. 484). Within this bay on the S.W. side stood the ancient city of Melinda, the site of which, in crossing the mouth of the bay, we were at too great a distance to see.
[Note 13] (p. 485). These must, therefore, have been the rocks mentioned by Captain Bissel in his memoir on which the Leopard, Admiral Blankett’s flag-ship, struck (Feb. 15, 1799, on a voyage to the Red Sea), when bearing up to Zanzibar after a fruitless attempt to beat up this coast during the N.E. monsoon. The mosque, however, or pagoda, as he calls it, is by no means a good sea-mark, as no ship ought to go so close as to make it sufficiently conspicuous. A much better are two hills to the N.W.; they are considerably higher than any near them, and, in consequence, easily known. The two hills are close together, and only partially divided by a shallow notch resembling a woman’s breast in form.
[Note 14] (p. 486). The River Quiliffa is in S. lat. 3° 26′, and in long. (by means of several good observations) 39° 26′ E.
[Note 15] (p. 488). The Expedition sailed from Bombay on the 2nd January, 1811.
[Note 16] (p. 488). There is also a group at the east end of the island.
[Note 17] (p. 489). The only one of this group of islands that has no wood on it.
[Note 18] (p. 491). This tree is by the natives of Hindostan called Brosh, and bears a large oval fruit with a smooth skin, but neither it nor the wood of the tree is of any use. (Editor’s note: the best is now worth £14 to £15 per ton.)
[Note 19] (p. 491). Variation 8° W.
[Note 20] (p. 493). Cocoa-nuts (of which the island produces vast quantities) are also exported to Malabar, and also wax and tortoise-shell.
[Note 21] (p. 493). Dried salted shark and other fish, and ghee, are brought in considerable quantities from Socotra; likewise chinaware, earthen jars, and toys and ornaments from Surat.
[Note 22] (p. 496). I do not give this as information to be depended on.
[Note 23] (p. 497). The Galla are in their persons exactly similar to the west-coast negroes.
[Note 24] (p. 499). The sugar-cane grows in great plenty, but the inhabitants are ignorant of the art of making sugar.
[Note 25] (p. 500). Monkeys are also found on the island, with foxes and wild hogs, &c.
[Note 26] (p. 500). Rice and ghee can be procured in considerable quantities, but it will be found expensive for strangers to provide any great supply of those articles.
[Note 27] (p. 502). This, I think, must be an error. Five thousand is more probable,—the person who gave me the information being rather given to exaggeration.
[Note 28] (p. 508). No revenue collected by the Imaum.
[Note 29] (p. 508). Ibid.
[Note 30] (p. 508). Camels numerous, at about 5 dollars each.
THE END.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
[1]. The new system of electric signals has again altered the position of Bombay, which is placed now in E. long. (G.) 72° 48′ 4″. Before that invention the difference between London and Paris varied from 2° 20′ 15″ to 2° 20′ 24″. In 1854 M. Le Verrier determined it from 200 observations to be 2° 20′ 9.45″.
[2]. This Kisawahili name is usually written by the Arabs ‘Mfíta.’ Dr Krapf prefers ‘Mwita,’ and remarks that the ‘Wamwita,’ together with remnants of 11 other tribes, represent the original inhabitants of Mombasah. The natives would also pronounce Mombasah as Mombásá; and indeed so it is written by Ibn Batuta (chap. ix.). The silent terminal aspirate of the Arabic and Persian becomes in Kisawahili a long á, e.g. Ndílá, a coffee-pot, from the Arabic Dallah and Daríshá, a window, from the Persian Daricheh. The translation of El Idrisi (Climate I. sect. 7), gives Manisa two days from Melinde, evidently a conception of Mvita. Capt. Hamilton (India, chap. i.) unduly contracts it to ‘Mombas,’ and this seems to be the cacography adopted of late years.
[3]. In the original—
Estava a ilha a terra tão chegada
Que humo estreito pequeno a dividia;
Huma cidade nella situada
Que da fronte do mar apparecia;
De nobres edificios fabricada
Como por fóra ao longe descobria;
Regida por hum Rei de antigua idade,
Mombaça he o nome da ilha e da cidade.
Lusiad, i. 103.
[4]. In 1823 the Arabs informed Capt. Boteler ‘that in some rivers in the vicinity gold in small quantities was at times procured’ (Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery, &c., vol. ii., chap. i.).
[5]. The racial name of these wandering Lestrigons, so formidable to the Portuguese in the 16th century, and taken from a title of honour, ‘Captains of warlike nomades,’ is thus confused by Prichard (Natural History of Man): ‘In 1569 the same people are said to have been completely routed on the Eastern coast, near Mombasa, after having laid waste the whole region of Monomotapa.’ He may have heard of the Highland of Chaga, whose people, however, call themselves not Wachaga, but Wakirima—mountaineers. Or he may have known that the Portuguese inscription over the Fort Gate at Mombasah declares that in A.D. 1635 the Capitão Mor, Francisco de Xeixas e Cabrera, had subjugated, amongst others, the King of Jaca or Jaga. Jaca is also mentioned by J. de Barros (ii. 1, 2). M. Guillain (vol. ii. chap. xxii.) makes ‘Chaka’ a town between Melinde and the mouth of the Ozi river. We find ‘the Jages, Anthropophagos,’ in Walker’s Map, No. 4, Universal Atlas, 1811.
[6]. Messrs J. Schön and Samuel Crowther’s Journals with the Niger Expedition of 1841. London, 1842.
[7]. Dos Santos calls the Commander ‘Muzimbas.’ Duarte Barbosa mentions sub voce Zimbaoche, a great village seven days’ journey from Benametapa. De Barros identifies it with the Ptolemeian Agyzimba, and describes it as a royal residence of the Emperor Benomotapa. It is the Zumbo of Dr Livingstone.
[8]. A plan of the Island was published by Rezende in 1635.
[9]. In the edition of Charles Muller (Paris, 1845) the word καίνης disappears, and the sentence becomes καὶ της λεγομένης διώρυχος, ‘and the so-called fosse.’ Certainly the term διῶρὺξ would suit the Mombasah Canal better than the Channel of Patta, and the former is the only ‘digging’ where human labour can possibly have been applied. Thus Pliny (v. 3) explains the name of the city Hippo Diarrhytus, ‘from the channels made for irrigation.’ That the scanty population of Arabs at ancient Mombasah was incapable of excavating a canal 600 metres long is no proof that the work was not done. The Sultan of Mombasah could bring into the field 5000 wild archers, and, similarly, in the Brazil the most astonishing works were effected by a handful of Portuguese, assisted by hordes of Tupy savages.
[10]. Owen (i. 404, 405) sketches and transcribes it very incorrectly. Guillain (vol. i., Appendix, p. 622) has done his work better. In vol. i., p. 442, however, he gives the name of the governor as ‘Sexas e Cabra’—the latter by no means complimentary.
[11]. Short account of Mombas and the neighbouring coast of Africa, by Lieut. Emery, R. N. Journal Royal Geographical Society, vol. iii. of 1854.
[12]. This may, however, be the pile spoken of by Boteler.
[13]. I made a sketch of it which was published in Dr Krapf’s Travels, chap. xiii. Rabai Mpia, ‘New Rabai,’ is thus distinguished from a neighbouring settlement, Rabai Khú or Kale, ‘old Rabai.’ According to M. Guillain (i. 247), the ‘Montagnes de Rabaye’ correspond with the ‘Alkerany’ of the geographer Ibn Saíd, who says, ‘East of Melinde is Alkerany, the name of a mountain very well known to travellers. This height projects into the sea for a distance of about 100 miles in a north-east direction; at the same time it extends along the Continent in a straight line, trending south for some 50 miles. Amongst the peculiarities of this mountain is the following: the continental portion contains an iron mine, which supplies all the country of the Zenj, besides being exported, and the part under the sea contains magnetic matter which attracts iron.’ Evidently ‘Alkerany’ belongs to the geography of El Sindibad of the Sea, better known as Sindbad the Sailor.
[14]. The route which follows seems to agree, as far as it goes, with the Rev. Mr Wakefield’s No. 3, from Mombasah to Dhaicho. I have not changed my notes, which still appear in my diary of 1857.
1. Mombasah viâ Mkupa to Rabai: 1 full day.
2. Kitakakai in the plains of the Wakamba: 1 day.
3. Mtu ’Ndogoni (M’tu Anggoni of Capt. Guillain?): 1 day.
4. Wamamba of the Doruma: 1 day.
5. Kisima (little well), amongst high hills, with a small reservoir: 1½ day. (This[(This] appears to be the Ngurunga za Kimiri and Ngurunga za Mlala of Capt. Guillain, and the Gurungani of Mr Wakefield).
6. Dayda (Tayta, the Taveta of Capt. Guillain, which Mr Wakefield makes a corruption of a Kikwavi word, ‘Ndoveta’): 2 days (1 long and 1 short).
7. Ndi, a place infamous for thieves: 1½ day.
8. The Chágo (Zavo) or Tsavo river: 1½ day. (Captain Guillain has a village, Segao.)
9. Mtitowandei: 1½ day.
10. Kikumbulu, or country on the southern frontier of Ukamba: 1 day.
11. The Adi (Sabaki or Sabbak) river, which disembogues itself north of Melinde, unfordable after rains: 1½ day.
12. The Tiwa river in Yatá: 1 day.
13. Nzáu, the land of tobacco: 1½ day.
14. Kitui: 2½ days.
Thence, to the beginning of Kikuyu, the travellers make from 4 to 8 stages. The day’s work would be 9 hours, including 2 of halt, and the distance, assuming the pace to be 2½ miles per hour, would be about 17 miles. Here, say the people, 10 marches do the work of a month on the southern lines, the reason being want of food and water, and fear of enemies.
[15]. The reports forwarded by the Rev. Mr Wakefield render it very probable that Mount Kenia is the Dóĭnyo Ebor, ‘White Mountain,’ the block rising north of Kikuyu, and almost in a meridian with Kilima-njaro. Moreover, a native traveller has lately described a mass of 30 to 40 craters in the Njemsi country, south of the Baringo or Bahari-ngo Lake; the apex of the mountains being the Doenyo Mburo, alias the Kirima ja Jioki (Mountain of Smoke), heard of by Dr Krapf (Church Miss. Int., p. 234. 1852.)
[16]. The singular is Mritmangao, hence Mr Cooley’s Meremongáo, whence iron was exported to make Damascus blades—risum teneatis? Dr Krapf says ‘the Wakamba are called by the Suahili, Waumanguo.’ M. Guillain (iii. 216) translates ‘M’rim-anggâo, or Ouarimanggâo’ by ‘gens qui vont nus.’
[17]. Dr Krapf’s ‘Vocabulary of the Engútuk Eloikob’ (Wakwafi), Tübingen, 1854. The author, a far better ethnologist than linguist, made the Wakwafi tribe extend from N. Lat. 2° to S. Lat. 4°, and in breadth from 7° to 8°. He derives the racial name from Loi or Eloi (‘those,’ plural of Oloi), and Gob or Kob (country) ‘those in or of the country’; the word has been corrupted by the Wakamba to Mukabi, and by the Wasawahili to Mukafi and Mkwafi, in the plural, Wakwafi. Late reports represent the fact that the Wamasai tribe, after the fashion of all Inner Africa, is struggling to obtain a settlement upon the coast, where it can trade direct with Europeans, and has actually succeeded in driving the Waboni from the southern bank of the Adi or Sabakí river; thence its progress to Melinde and the seashore is easy and sure. I regret to state that the valuable papers by Herr Richard Brenner (Mittheilungen, &c., Dr A. Petermann, 1868) have not been translated into English. Mr Edward Weller, however, has made use of that traveller’s map in preparing his excellent illustration of these volumes. Herr Brenner is stated to be still in Africa; he appears to be an intelligent traveller, and we may justly hope that we have not heard the last of him.
[18]. From Nyika, the wild land, comes Mnyika, the wild lander; Wanyika, the wild land folk; and Kinyika, the wild land tongue.
[19]. The Moslem Wasawahili adapts the modified Arabic form, ‘Shaytani.’
[20]. I say East African because the western regions, especially Fanti-land and Dahome, believe in a Hades, or world of shades, which is apparently derived from Egypt. Of this I have spoken in my Mission to Dahome. Vitruvius exactly explains what my meaning is in the celebrated passage, Virgo civis Corinthia, jam matrem nuptiis, implicito morbo decessit; post sepulturam ejus quibus ea viva poculis delectabatur, nutrix collecta et composita in calatho pertulit ad monumentum, et in summo collocavit.
[21]. ‘Imperfect sketch of a Map,’ by the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society in Eastern Africa. J. Rebmann, Rabia Mpia, April 4, 1850. This is the best yet published as regard the names and position of the settlements. It places Gasi half-way between Wasin Island and Mombasah, and it gives correctly the Jongolia-ni[Jongolia-ni] promontory. The same cannot be said of Herr Augustus Petermann’s ‘Skizze nach J. Erhardt’s Original und der Engl. Küsten Aufnahme (Captain Owen’s, I presume) gezeichnet. Geographische Mittheilungen.’ Gotha, 1856. It omits Tanga Bay and Cape Jongolia-ni, whilst it places the Gasi roadstead close to Mombasah.
[22]. Sheet X. from S. lat. 6° 38′ to S. lat. 4° 23′ (Tom Shoal) is the offending member in commission and omission. It places Chala (Kwala) point 14 instead of 45 miles North of Tanga, and thus the latter, which is parallel with the Northern third of Pemba Island, is thrown 25 miles north of it. Wasin Island, between Mombasah and Tanga, is transferred five miles South of the latter. It also omits the ruins of Mtangata. North of this, the ‘Island and Ports of Mombaza’ are remarkably correct, but further North again the Coast, owing to the sickness of the surveyors, was perfunctorily laid down: they seem not to have landed at Makdishu, nor to have sought the debouchure of the Juba river. The late Lieut. Carless, I.N., did not extend his admirable labours beyond Ra’as Hafun. Southward, also, many important places were left unnoticed by Capt. Owen. The Rufiji river is omitted, and the Tanchi inlet (about S. lat. 9° 55′), a little above the mouth of the Lindi river, does not appear upon the chart: it was till lately a nest of slavers, who shared their secret with certain Zanzibar merchants, till unpleasantly disturbed by H. B. Majesty’s ship Grecian. In a return made to the House of Commons from the Hydrographic Department (1848) it was stated that ‘many researches might probably be made from Delagoa Bay to the Red Sea’; I therefore proposed (April 19, 1856) a fresh survey of the Coast, but the project found an obstacle in the Persian War.
[23]. Mvo is the Mvubu of the Kafir tongues: here the generally used term for the Hippopotamus is Kiboko. I agree with the Rev. Mr Wakefield (p. 307), that the diminutive forms, Kiboko, plural Viboko (Viboko-ni, p. 316), are preferred to the root-name Boko, plural Maboko. It may, however, be doubted if Boko, like Lima, be not the intensitive of Mboko and Mlima, a hippopotamus and a mountain.
[24]. Mr Wakefield (J. R. G. Society for 1870, p. 304) gives 11 marches: of these, however, 4 are 12 hour marches, 2 are of 8 hours, 1 is of 7 hours, and 4 are of 6 hours.
[25]. The following is a native list of the stages between Tanga and Chaga: I leave it as written in 1857, and the reader will find the first part almost identical with Mr Wakefield’s Route No. 1. I was surprised to see the coincidence.
1. Tanga to Bwetti: 1 whole day (others say two), through the Wadigo and Wasegeju jungle to a stream.
2. Dongo Khundu (red earth): half a day to a day, path straight easy through the Wasegeju and Wadigo.
3. The Umba river: 1 day of jungle march.
4. The Mto Mchanga (Sand river): 1 day of wilderness march.
5. Mbaramo in the Usumbara country, many streams: 1 day’s march. The hill belongs to King Kimwere’s sons, and some make it the 3rd station.
6. Gonja in the Pare country: 1 long day, the men generally dividing it and sleeping in a jungle. Water is found flowing from a hill.
7. Kisiwa-ni in Pare: 1 day jungle march.
8. Sáme, at end of Pare: 1 day of jungle.
9. The Upo-ni river in the Wakwafi country, where robbers are feared: men sleeping in the jungle 2 days.
10. The Rufu, or Upper Panga-ni river, whose banks are here woody, and whose crocodile-haunted waters must be crossed in boats: 2 days. Here is the Mhiná-ni station.
The Chaga road does not cross the stream, but runs northward with the following stages, which are not mentioned by Mr Wakefield.
1. Mhina-ni to Arusha, a populous agricultural country: 1 day.
2. Kiboko-ni on left bank of Panga-ni river: 1 day of desert march.
3. Kahe Water of the Wakahe people: 1 long day, generally made 2, the people sleeping in the jungle.
4. Chaga: 1 to 2 days under similar circumstances; water, however, is found at night.
The caravans are of course armed and ready to fight: they march from sunrise to 11 A.M., and from mid afternoon to sunset—sometimes a forced march compels them to walk all day. The porters carry about 1½ Farsaleh. These details serve to prove that there are many points by which the European traveller can more or less safely enter the interior.
[26]. I will not stand godfather to this name, not being aware that in Kikwafi there is any word ‘aro’ signifying great or greatness. The abstract term, however, is general in South African languages. Mr Rebmann says it may mean the ‘Mountain of Caravans’ (Jaro), that is to say, a landmark for caravans—but this is going far afield.
[27]. Capt. Grant (a Walk across Africa, chap. viii.) has given ‘Jumah’s Stories about Kilimanjaro.’ We could not meet with specimens of the onyxes, carnelians, and crystals washed by rain-torrents down the gorges and gullies of Kilima-njaro, and of which a few have found their way to the coast—hence probably the ‘carnelian currency’ (p. 29) of Mr Cooley’s ‘Kirimanjara.’ Of course such a circulation could never have sufficed for one-thousandth part of the interior trade, nor could the frozen heights of Kilima-njaro ever have ‘been the highest ridge crossed by the road to Monomoezi.’
[28]. Mdogo in Kisawahili means a short man.
[29]. The Moslems of the islands and the coast call all the pagans Washenzi, and the word is opposed to Mháji—a Moslem generally—and to Wazumba, the Wasawihili of the northern region. On the continent it is, I have said, applied to a servile or helot caste, originally from the S. West of the Panga-ni river, and afterwards settled in Bondei.
[30]. For the Persian ruins on this coast the reader will consult Herr Richard Branner’s Forschungen in Ost Afrika, Mittheilungen, 1868.
[31]. The Arabs, who have no P, must change it to an F, e.g. Fanga-ni and Fagazi for Pagazi, a porter. The latter word is ridiculously enough turned into a verb, e.g. ‘ba-yatafaggazú’[‘ba-yatafaggazú’], ‘they act carriers.’
[32]. Yet it has not become wholly obsolete. Mr Henry Adrian Churchill, C.B., formerly H. M.’s Consul, Zanzibar, when examined before the Select Committee on slave trade (July 13, 1871), made the total amount of exportation from Zanzibar Island, $1,527,800. Of this $100,000 represented copal; $2400 stood for hippopotamus’ teeth; $663,600 for ivory; and $270,000 for slaves. Thus no notice of cowries is taken; and the trade rivalry of H.M. Régis and Fabre has succeeded in putting down the shell-money.
[33]. Mr Wakefield (loc. cit.) writes the word ‘Rúvu,’ and says that it is Kizegúa (Kizegura). I believe that this is the name by which it is known, not only ‘a few days in the interior,’ but immediately beyond the embouchure. As has already been remarked, the wild people would pronounce the words Kizegúa and Mzegúa, the civilized Kizegura and Mzegura. Dr Krapf prefers Luffu, Lufu being the more truly African form. Mr Cooley (Lower Africa, &c., p. 79) has Ruvú, a mere error, and he actually confounds it with the great Rufuma stream, a hundred miles to the south.
[34]. The full-blooded negro is called Sidi (Seedy) or Sidi bhai (‘my lord brother’) throughout Western India. I have said that the expression, derived from his address to his master, is unknown at Zanzibar: to Europe it is made familiar by El Cid Campeador, but it must not be confounded with Sayyid, as it has lately been by a writer in the Athenæum (No. 2288, Sept. 2, 1871).
[35]. Ch’hungu, the generic name for an ant, must not be confounded with ‘Chungu,’ a pot.
[36]. A delicate mercurial barometer (Adie), obligingly lent to me by the Secretary of the Bombay Geographical Society, was left for comparison at Zanzibar with the apothecary of the Consulate. On a rough mountain tour such an instrument would certainly have come to grief, as it afterwards did on the lowlands of the Continent. The instruments recommended by the Medical Board, Bombay, did not reach us in time; and the same was the case with the reflecting circle kindly despatched by Mr Francis Galton. We had in all four bath thermometers, and two B. Ps.; one used by Capt. Smyth, R. N., when crossing the Andes, was given to us by Col. Hamerton; and another (Newman) was rendered useless by mercury settling in the upper bulb, air having been carelessly left in the tube by the maker—a frequent offence. We had no sympiesometers. The instrument is portable, but the experience of naval officers pronounces against it within the tropics, and especially near the Line (6° to 8°), where its extreme sensitiveness renders it useless. Aneroids also must be carried in numbers, and be compared with standard instruments not so likely to be deranged: they are seldom true, and are liable to vary when ascending or descending the scale. My latest explorations have been made with glass tubes, supplied by Mr Louis Casella, of Hatton Garden: they are portable, not easily broken, and, best of all, they give correct results. Of course it is well to carry aneroids for all except crucial stations; and as for B. Ps., they are not worth the trouble of carrying.
[37]. Curious to say, M. Erhardt, who was certainly no mean linguist (Conclusion to Dr Krapf’s Travels, pp. 500 and 504), has translated, by some curious mistake, Kiboko crocodile, and Mamba hippopotamus. In the latter error he is of course followed by Mr Cooley, who (Memoir on the Lake Regions, p. 9) finds that I am ‘disingenuous’ in affecting to be astonished that he translates Mamba by hippopotamus.
[38]. The banana is the Musa Sapientum: the plantain is the M. Paradisiaca, and Linnæus picturesquely adopted Musa from the Arabic Mauz (موز): in India the small species is called plantain, the large horse-plantain, and the French term both ‘bananes.’ In E. Africa there are half-a-dozen varieties of the ‘Ndizi.’
[39]. Heeren believes, with Pliny, that the ancients discovered diamonds mingled with gold in certain N. African localities, especially Meroe.
[40]. Doenyo Mbúro, for instance, placed by Mr Wakefield south of the Salt Lake Naivasha or Balibali.
[41]. Dr Krapf writes, ‘Simba wa Muene,’ i. e. the Lion is Himself, or the Lion of the Self-Existent (God).
[42]. Mr Cooley (Inner Africa Laid Open, p. 75) calls in Vuga, and gravely chronicles the valuable observation of ‘Khamis’ his ‘intelligent Sawáhili,’ who made it three times as large as the town of Zanzibar. He confounds (p. 63) with Dos Santos (History of Eastern Æthiopia, iii. 1), through 8° of distance, Karagwah or Karague with Gurague in Abyssinia, Gurague meaning the left hand to one looking westward, and thus corresponding with the Arabic El Sham (Syria or Damascus). We also find (p. 55) Sadána for Sa’adani, and Wadóa for Wadoe.
[43]. It is mentioned by Dr Krapf as ever having been occupied by the Portuguese. Mr Cooley (Inner Africa, &c., p. 34) modestly writes, ‘Kisúngo, more probably Kisonga.’
[44]. The German missionaries placed the Tanganyika Lake 600 direct geographical miles from the sea: I reduced the distance to 300. This was an error. But we had been told upon the coast that the Sea of Unyamwezi is in Unyamwezi, and the easternmost frontier of the latter region at Tura is distant 290 direct geographical miles from the seaboard of Zanzibar.
[45]. Denok is the Galla name of the stream, probably from Danesha, a townlet or encampment on the right bank of the stream, some three miles from the sea. Vumbo is the Kisawahili term. The Somal call it Gob, ‘the junction’ (hence the Juba of the Arabs, who cannot pronounce the letter G), and Gob-wen, ‘the great junction,’ a name also given to the settlement Danesha: hence the Hinduized form Govind. Webbe (river) Ganana (bifurcation) is derived from a village high up the stream. The Portuguese called it Rio dos Fuegos from the number of fires, probably of fishermen: the English, ‘Rogues River,’ a term which might be applied to all the streams on this coast.
[46]. I have reprinted the rest of the paper in my preface to a Memoir on the Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa.—Journal Royal Geographical Society, xx. 1860.
[47]. It has been remarked by Dr Beke (Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xvii. p. 74), that hereabouts is the position assigned by Ptolemy to his Anthropophagi, living around the Barbaric Gulf, and by El Mas’udi to the men-eating Zenj—a curious coincidence. I am convinced that all the negro tribes now settled upon the East and West coasts of Intertropical Africa have migrated, or rather have gravitated, from the interior within a few centuries, and that the process is still in active operation. Whatever the Wamakua Menschen-fresser may have been, the Wadoe seem to have adopted cannibalism of late years, in terrorem. So Tarik, the Arab invader of Spain, when fighting his way between Bœtis and the Tagus, ordered his men to cook (but not to eat) the flesh of slain Christians.
[48]. From the Arab Sandarus, which their pharmacopœia applies to the transparent resin Sandaraca or Sandarach. Our copal is a corruption of the Mexican Kopali—any gum. It is called anime or animi in the London market, and by the workman French varnish. The copals of Mexico, of New Zealand (popularly termed Cowace copal), and of the West African coast, are inferior kinds. The ‘Damar,’ or gum found about Cape Delgado, floats in water, and may be unripe copal washed out by the wet season.
[49]. Mr Cooley (Geography, p. 29) informs us that the native porters start on their down journey ‘in March or April, probably at the end of the heavy rains, and return in September.’ He thus greatly restricts the period. Of course the season varies to some extent at every part; but, as a rule, to March and April add May and June, and for September read November and December. Dr Krapf is less incorrect (Travels, &c., p. 421); M. Guillain is equally so (vol. iii. 374).
[50]. The Lake Regions of Central Africa, 2 vols. 8vo. Longmans, 1860. Memoir on the Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1 vol. No. xxxi. of 1860. The Nile Basin, 1 vol. Tinsleys. London, 1869.
[51]. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Blackwood, 1863. What led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Blackwood, 1864. A Walk across Africa, by Capt. Grant. Blackwood, 1864. The papers inform me that Captain now Col. Grant, C. B., is engaged upon a botanical work which will illustrate the valuable collection brought home by him in 1863.
[52].
| The first expedition placed Kazeh in E. long. (G.) | 33° | 3′ | 0″ |
| The second ” ” ” | 33 | 1 | 34 |
| Difference | 0 | 1 | 26 |
| The first expedition placed Ujiji in E. long. (G.) | 30° | 0’ | 0″ |
| The second ” ” ” | 29 | 54 | 30 |
| Difference | 0 | 5 | 30 |
These close results place Captain Speke’s positions beyond all possibility of cavil.
[53]. In Mr Wakefield’s routes (loc. cit.) we find ‘To Mtanganyíko.—Kisáwahílí, meaning the place of mingling or mixture (rendezvous).’ I cannot, however, but suspect that the word is a misprint for Mtanganyika. At any rate it will completely support my assertions versus Mr Cooley and the town of Zanganica, where no such things as towns exist.
[54]. Mr Cooley (p. 13, Memoir of the Lake Regions of East Africa reviewed) declares that ‘the name Warua is the Sawáhily equivalent of Milúa, and that the Miluana, as the Awembe are also called, signifies mixed or half-bred Milúa;’ he moreover identifies them with the ‘Alunda, who, with the Arungo, including apparently the Wakatata or Wakatanga, are all Wathembwe or subjects of the Cazembe.’ He finds that I have written Uruwwa, ‘with greater show of originality and rigorous Arabism,’ the fact being that I wrote down what the Arabs told me. Col. J. A. Grant (Athenæum, April 9, 1870) identifies Uruwwa with Dr Livingstone’s Rua, where tribes live ‘in under-ground houses said to be 30 miles long.’
[55]. Mr Findlay remarks, ‘The length of the Nile’s course from Gondokoro to its mouth, following its major winding, is about 2400 geog. miles (= 2780 British miles). From Gondokoro, near to which it was generally agreed, ten years ago, that the southernmost head of the Nile would be found, to the south end of the Tanganyika Lake, is 830 geog. miles (= 960 British miles). If the source be near the Muxinga range, it must be 270 geog. miles (= 312 British miles) still farther south, so that its total course will be 3500 geog. (= 4050 British) miles, almost unparalleled by any other river’ (loc. cit. note. p. 16).
[56]. ‘A map of the Lake Regions of Eastern Africa, showing the Sources of the Nile recently discovered by Dr Livingstone, with Notes on the Exploration of this Region, its physical Features, Climate, and Population.’ London, 1870.
[57]. The Sources of the Nile (p. 83). London: Madden, 1860.
[58]. This word means a lake or pond, not the ‘river of the lake.’ Its plural is not Wáziwa—wa being the animate prefix—but Maziwa (e. g. Maziwa Mengi, many lakes). It is not used by the Wasawahili to signify the south. An Arab would not make the plural Ziwáhah (but Ziwát or Ziwáín, if he attempted such barbarism); nor would he want to use the adjective ‘Ziwáí.’ These five errors occur in as many lines. (Geography of N’yassi, 24, 25.)
[59]. Yet, curious to say, the map of May, 1858, was drawn from hearsay, and that of June, 1859, after the southern part of the lake region, now known as the ‘Victoria Nyanza,’ had been discovered by Capt. Speke. In the former, however, he added the ‘Mountains of the Moon,’ and prolonged the long parallelogram from N. lat. 2° to N. lat. 3° 20′, a country known by the reports of the Egyptian expedition of 1840, of Dr Peney, and of MM. Miami and Vincent Angelo.
[60]. This birds-eye view and comprehensive idea of shape regarding a feature so considerable does not appear to me African.
[61]. ‘Ptolemæus und die Handelstrassen in Central-Afrika.’ It was written before the traveller set out for Africa, and it has been calmly and fairly judged by Dr Beke (Sources of the Nile, p. 69).
[62]. The old Portuguese travellers (Rezende and others) mention the islets of Auxoly, Coa, and Zibondo; I could hear nothing of these names: they are probably corruptions, Auxoly for Chole, Coa for Koma, and Zibondo for Kibundo.
[63]. Kisíma (Arab. Tawi) is opposed to Shímo, a water-pit (Arab. Hufreh).
[64]. Captain Guillain (i. 111) says 10 miles or 100 stadia. In i. 169 he writes ‘Mafia n’est separée de la côte que par un canal de 3½ lieues, partagé encore par une petite île intermédiare.’
[65]. Note to p. 20. In p. 19 (ibid.) we read, ‘The country near the mouth of the Lufiji is occupied by the Mazingía.’ No such name is known, however; it would mean, if anything, ‘Water of the Path (Maji ya Njia),’ not, as he renders it, ‘the road along the water.’ Even then Maji Njia is hardly grammatical: the genitive sign can be omitted, especially in poetry, as—
‘Mimi siki, Mimi siki M’áná simbá,’
‘I fear not, I fear not the lion’s whelp;’
but the ‘water path’ as a P.N. is not Kisawahili. The word is evidently a confusion with Kilwa Majinjera; and the ‘Denkarenko’ tribe is unknown as the ‘Mazingía.’ Another mistake of another kind is talking of a ‘Surat (for Suri) Arab,’ something like a Russian Englishman. Such, however, is the individual who lectures Dr Livingstone on Sichwawa and teaches me the elements of Kisawahili.
[66]. After leaving Kilwa we heard of a ‘Nullah’ entering the bay, a long fissure 4 to 5 feet broad and many fathoms deep, which communicates with a grotto haunted by huge snakes and genii (Jinus).
[67]. Page xliii. of Mr E. G. Ravenstein’s Introduction to Dr Krapf’s Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours (London: Trübner. 1860).
[68]. This must be understood by comparison: the vegetation shows much humidity, but perhaps not so excessive as upon the coast further north.
[69]. The Highlands of the Brazil, i. 370.
[70]. I have explained the latter, like Rufa and Rufuta, to have been derived from Ku fa, to die (Memoir on the Lake Regions, p. 44). This Rufuma is the Livuma (or ‘gut’) of Mr Cooley (Geography, &c., p. 15). What can he mean by ‘going from Kilwa to Jáo (Uhyáo), the traveller reaches the Livuma in 25 to 30 days’? There is hardly a bee-line of 2° between Kilwa and the mouth of the Rufuma. And what may be ‘Lukelingo, the capital of Jáo’?—any relation to the ‘town Zanganica’? It is probably the Lukeringo district and stream falling into the eastern waters of the Nyassa Lake.
[71]. This is probably a confusion with the legend of Ali bin Hasan, the Shirazi chief, who, according to the ‘Kilwa Chronicle’ (De Barros, 1st Decade of Asia, viii. 4, 5), occupied Kilwa in our 11th century. There may have been a second emigration from Shangaya after the 14th century, but the tale of the cloth is suspicious. Cloth, however, has played everywhere upon this coast the part of gold and silver. Sofala was anciently a monopoly of Makdishu, which traded with it for gold on condition of sending every year a few young men to improve the ‘Kafir’ race, the latter highly valuing the comparatively white blood. A fisherman of Kilwa having been carried by the currents to the S. Eastern Gold Coast, reported this state of affairs to Daud, 10th Shirazi Sultan of Kilwa. This chief succeeded in getting the rich trade into his own hands by offering as many pieces of cloth as the youths sent by the people of Makdishu, and by also supplying emigrants to marry the daughters of the savages.
[72]. The Rev. Mr Wakefield (loc. cit. p. 312) calls this place Shungwaya, and states that it is a district between Goddoma and Kaúma (Wanyika-land); whilst his authority, Sadi, declares it to be the original home of all the Wasegeju.
[73]. The Sayyid Majid had originally agreed to pay annually $20,000 to Sayyid Suwayni, $10,000 to his brother, Sayyid Turki of Sohar, and $10,000 tribute to the Wahhabis. This was on condition that Sayyid Turki should not be molested, as he repeatedly was. It was generally believed that the arrangement was verbal, Sayyid Majid having refused to bind himself by writing: possibly there may have been a secret document. This agreement was subsequently modified by the action of the Bombay Government.
[74]. The Nile Basin. Tinsleys, 1864.
[75]. Introduction to ‘What led to the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile.’ Blackwoods, 1864.
[76]. ‘This fine undertaking was most inadequately subsidized: only £1000 was supplied by the Government, through the Society—£750 at the outset, and £250 on their return. The rest of the total cost, £2500, was defrayed jointly by the travellers themselves’ (Mr Findlay, loc. cit., speaking of the East African Expedition of 1856 to 1859). The Treasury, in 1860, contributed £2500, a sum which, with the experience gained during the first expedition, was amply sufficient.
[77]. Träume sind Schäume.
[78]. Farsaleh, in the plural Farasileh, is supposed to be an Arabic word, but it is unintelligible to the Arabs, except when they sell coffee. I can only suggest that it is derived from our parcel, and that we, on the other hand, have taken from it the word fraisle (of coffee).
[79]. Capt. Guillain finds amongst the Wasawahili that the cubit averages 45 centi-metres, and amongst the Somal 48 to 49. This agrees with my observations. The latter race is not only tall and gaunt; it has also a peculiarly long and simian forearm: moreover, when cloth is to be measured, the biggest man in the village is generally summoned.
[80]. The Banyans import this pulse (Cajanus Indicus) split, skin, boil, and eat it with ghi; sometimes with rice and ghi, like Dall. It is supposed to be a very windy food.
[81]. Unknown in Persia, this little black grain, like poppy seed, comes from Bombay, and is eaten boiled with ghi.
[82]. Last good observation of barometer. Two thermometers (F.) used, attached and detached.
[83]. According to Captain Guillain (ii. 344) the Arabs call it Ras Mume. As regards the term Dolphin’s Nose, he observes: ‘Je dois avouer qui l’analogie pourrait être plus saissisante et elle accuse au moins beaucoup d’imagination chez eux qui l’ont remarquée.’ He appears to ignore that Dolphin’s Nose is a recognized term for a long thick, point seen en profil, and understood by every English sailor.
[84]. Better written Darajah, meaning a step, a tier.
[85]. Abd el Khuri, ‘the slave of the (married) priest or secular clergyman.’ The people of Socotra were once Christians all. Others write the name Abd el Kari, or slave of the Koran reader.
[86]. On the Island of Abd el Khuri, only 20 leagues west of Socotra, heavy showers begin with February and end with April. Modern travellers declare that there is not a single stream except during the rains, and that the well water is all more or less brackish.
[87]. Ras Hafun (not Jard Hafun), N. lat. 10° 26′ 8″ (Raper).
[88]. Ponta das Baixas, the Cape of Shoals, the point called by the Arabs Ra’as Aswad (Black Head), in N. lat. 4° 32′.
[89]. They were approaching the Sayf Tawil or Long Shore, which extends from Ra’as el Khayl (N. lat. 7° 46′ 30″) to Ra’as Awaz, the Cape of Change, where the Highlands fall.
[90]. January being the height of the Mausim or Kaskazi, when the Azyab or N. E. wind blows home.
[91]. The Highlands were Jebel el Hirab, the ‘Mountain of the Keel,’ because it appears like a huge dow upturned. It rises some 9 to 10 miles from the seaboard, and backs the Ponta das Baixas or Ra’as Aswad.
[92]. Ra’as Aswad in N. lat. 4° 44′ 5″ (Raper).
[93]. Still generally written Doara. It is apparently a mere Nullah or Fiumara, and is hardly mentioned by modern navigators. I can only suggest that the name might have been derived from Daaro, a district or tribe on the Upper Juba river, and the inveterate confusion of the potamology in this part of Africa can alone account for the error.
[94]. N. lat. 2° 2′ 18″ (Capt. Guillain).
[95]. Marka town, N. lat. 1° 44′ 1″, generally known as Bandar Marka.
[96]. Probably from Goba, the meeting (scil. of waters), Gobwen (corrupted to Govind) meaning the great meeting. Ganana is supposed to mean division or bifurcation. Danok is probably a corruption of the Galla Danesha, a settlement on the left bank of the river. I nowhere find my notice of the ‘Irunjba’ village, and presume that it is a corruption of ‘Gobwen.’
[97]. This reef, beginning at Makdishu, much resembles the great Brazilian formation, extending from Pernambuco southward.
[98]. The voyagers had now passed from the barren Somali Coast (Azania) to rich Zanzibar, where the tropical rains extend.
[99]. The cause of the dryness was the immense evaporation which the coolness of night deposited in the form of dew.
[100]. Mombasah.
[101]. The Bette of the Arabs.
[102]. This account of Patta is valuable: we hear little of the place from later travellers.
[103]. Sarhang, or native boatswain.
[104]. Englishmen at the time were full of the fate of Mr Park, and they knew little of Africa, who expected the people of Patta to have heard of the Niger.
[105]. Probably meaning Abyssinia.
[106]. The Wasawahili, or coast tribes.
[107]. The Gallas or Ormas are negroids, not negroes. This will answer [Note 23], which compares the Gallas with the west coast ‘niggers.’
[108]. The mixture of blood is with the negro races of the interior, driven down as slaves, and with the Arabs and Persians, whose first emigration dates probably from prehistoric ages.
[109]. We can hardly give them a better character now.
[110]. During this run they passed the mouths of the Ozi Dana, Zana, or Pokomoni, and of the Adi, Sabaki, or Sabbak, rivers.
[111]. Melinde Pillar is in S. lat. 3° 12′ 8″ (Raper).
[112]. Ra’as Gomany, N. point N. lat. 3° 0′ 0″ (Raper).
[113]. Kilefi Bay confounded with the mouth of the Adi, Sabaki, or Sabbak river, which debouches a little north of Formosa Bay, in which Melinde lies.
[114]. Possibly the Mtu Apa (Tuaca or Nash river), or the Takaungu streamlet, farther north.
[115]. The Corôa de Mombaza on the mainland nearly due north (magnetic) of the settlement.
[116]. Its extreme length is 42 geographical miles.
[117]. For leagues, read geographical miles.
[118]. Modern charts show no such reef, and the minimum of mid-channel is 15 fathoms.
[119]. They are about midway in the island’s length.
[120]. Champani, the ‘Ile des Français,’ or Cemetery Island.
[121]. The average rise is about 13 feet.
[122]. The Mto-ni.
[123]. The Mbuyu, baobab or calabash tree (Adansonia digitata).
[124]. Corrected to S. lat. 6° 9′ 6″ and E. long. 39° 14′ 5″.
[125]. A mistake in title, which I have explained at full length.
[126]. Of this Yakut (the ruby) many tales are still told.
[127]. The lucrative copal trade is not mentioned.
[128]. Every traveller down to my own time has remarked this abomination at Zanzibar.
[129]. Farinha de páu, or wood-meal.
[130]. This is apparently derived from their Persian ancestry.
[131]. This is the paralysis from which I suffered in the African interior.
[132]. Probably a corruption of the Jezirat (el Khazra), the Green Island of the Arabs.
[133]. The author had forgotten, or rather he had not seen, the ‘Nile of Magadoxo.’
[134]. The Ozi river, south of Patta.
[135]. The Panga-ni river, which the Arabs would pronounce Fanga-ni.
[136]. The Rufigi, Lufigi, or Lufiji.
[137]. A popular error. The nearest river south of Kilwa would be the Lindi, a little known stream in S. lat. 10°.
[138]. This is the Nile of Magadoxo, which he has ignored.
[139]. Webbe in Somali means any stream.
[140]. The well-known settlement Berberah. The intelligent Somali evidently believed that the Hawash river and the Nile of Magadoxo are of the same origin.
[141]. Now generally written Kurachi or Kurachasi, as the Arrooseeya are the Arusi tribe.
[142]. Or Boren.
[143]. The Wadoe tribe.
[144]. This is, indeed, a wild confusion.
[145]. The Wanyamwezi.
[146]. The Wamakua, near Kilwa.
[147]. The Wahiao, S.E. of the Nyassa Lake.
[148]. The Wanguru of Southern Unyamwezi, or of the eastern ghauts, opposite Zanzibar. The text is here corrupt.
[149]. This appears to be a corruption of Wadoe, called in p. 510 Wuddooa.
[150]. The Wangindo tribe on the road from Kilwa to the Nyassa Lake.
[151]. The tribes of the Chaga Highland.
[152]. The hill-men of Usumbara.
[153]. Elanitic.
[154]. Possibly copal.
[155]. Nakhudas, native skippers.
[156]. Azan, Azania, properly Barr el Khazain, the Land of Tanks, which begins at Ra’as Hafun (N. lat. 10° 26′ 8″) and ends at Ra’as el Khayl (N. Lat. 7° 46′ 30″), about 160 miles in length.
[157]. The inhabitants hide themselves from strangers. In the interior they are tolerably numerous. Being Somal, they will not eat fish or fowl, as I have explained in my First Footsteps in East Africa.
[158]. It is the ‘Nile of Makdishu,’ supposed to issue from the lake Kaura. Of late years it has been called Webbe (River) Gamana or Webbe Giredi, and by Lieut. Christopher, the ‘Haines River.’ According to others, it rises about N. lat. 9° to 10° at a place called Denok, whence also one of its multitudinous names.
[159]. Ganana in Somaliland: it cannot be a large city. Here we may observe the Govind (Gulb-wen), alias the Juba River, upon whose right bank Ganana lies, is confounded with the ‘Nile of Magadoxo,’ and the eastern branch of the latter, called Webbe Gamana, has added to the confusion.
[160]. This may be the case if for Nile we read ‘Blue River.’ The Webbe Gamana, alias Nile of Makdishu, may, like the Webbe Ganana or Juba, rise in the S. Eastern counter-slope of the Abyssinian Highlands, which discharge to the N. West the Bahr el Azrak.
[161]. This, again, is the Juba, Webbe Ganana, or Govind River, whose bar is in S. lat. 0° 14′ 30″, or, according to others, in 0° 14′ 5″.
Transcriber’s Note
Place names are often spelled differently, usually by employing (or not) a hyphen. Where there is no other instance of a given variant, the other more common version is adopted; otherwise, the spelling stands here as printed.
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.
| [8.1] | the tall tower of Fort Chak-[c/C]hak | Replaced. |
| [32.3] | called by contemporary historians, ‘Zimbas[’]: | Inserted. |
| [62.19] | [(]This appears to be | Added. |
| [86.8] | and the dead[’], | Added. |
| [105.94] | the Jongolia[-]ni promontory. | Inserted. |
| [142.27] | turned into a verb, e.g. ‘ba-yatafaggazú[’], | Inserted. |
| [146.12] | used as kilts [(]Mkifu) by the Wamasai | Inserted. |
| [168.23] | from geograp[h]ical work | Inserted. |
| [183.5] | wird zum Besten der Menschheit.[’] | Removed. |
| [277.4] | des pièces de mâture[’] | Added. |
| [344.26] | without cramp[ s/s ]or convulsions | Shifted space. |
| [356.3] | or fish w[ie/ei]rs | Transposed. |
| [370.23] | Eastern Intertropical Africa[.] | Restored. |
| [373.20] | with a deta[t]chment to capture a gun | Removed. |
| [415.17] | and hippo[po]tamus’ teeth | Inserted. |
| [450.38] | at [6 ]p.m., 85°. | Added. |
| [455.17] | [52/25] Temperature of air at sunrise | Transposed. |
| [469.16] | taken at 8 P.M. 60° 55[″/′]. | Replaced. |
| [476.16] | carrying with[ with] us a present | Removed. |
| [481.22] | No fruit except the co[o]coa-nut | Removed. |
| [494.27] | They are in general pur[s/c]hased | Replaced. |