Some few of the residents at Mozambique I induced to clear away and cultivate the cotton shrubs; and, with the intention of encouraging legitimate commerce, I wrote to H.M. Ambassador in the United States, and also to the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester, asking for the three descriptions of cotton seeds—viz., the Nankin, green seed, and sea island—intending to send the two former into the interior, and to plant the “sea-island” on the coast, where the saline breezes from the ocean would favour its growth.
Having discovered the mulberry tree growing close to my house on the mainland, and that it was indigenous to the soil, I wrote to England for eggs of the silkworm, and addressed a letter to His Excellency the Governor of Bombay, praying his lordship to send me some eggs of the Tussah and other moths indicated in my letter.
Similarly I drew the attention of His Excellency the Governor-general of Mozambique to a very important discovery which I had made, and of which the Portuguese were entirely ignorant, viz., that both the gutta-percha tree, and also a tree yielding india-rubber, were to be found in large numbers on the banks of the Zambesi; and after having pointed out to him the commercial value of these trees, I begged him to issue an order forbidding any gutta-percha trees to be cut down—but, instead, pointing out that they should be tapped longitudinally, by which the supply would indeed be less, but permanent; whereas, if cut down for the purpose of extracting the juice, these trees, as at Singapore, would, in the course of a few years, disappear.
The present enlightened Governor-general of Mozambique, Colonel Almeida, responded to my endeavours by drawing attention to my communication in the official bulletin, calling upon all proprietors to preserve and increase the mulberry trees, and by inserting an article on the gutta-percha and india-rubber trees in the Bulletin.
Ibo, in latitude 12° 20′ S. and longitude 40° 38′ E., is admirably situated for trade. At present it is the great warehouse for slaves.
Zanzibar, the capital of the African dominions of the Imâm of Muskat, in latitude 6° 28′ S. and longitude 39° 33′ E., exports gold, ivory, drugs, coir, cocoa-nuts, gums, bees-wax, tortoise-shell, spice, rice from Pemba, sesame-seed from Angoxa, and a great quantity of timber annually to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
In 1818 cloves were introduced into Zanzibar from Mauritius; they thrive so well that the cultivation of them has in a great measure superseded that of the sugar-cane, and even the cocoa-nut.
The imports are—Surat and Dunjaree cloths from Cutch; iron, sugar, and rice from Bombay; salt fish and ghee from Socotra; cloths, cotton, china-ware, earthen jars, toys, and ornaments from Surat; dates from the Gulf of Persia; ivory, drugs, bees-wax, tortoise-shell, gums, and sesame-seed, from Angoxa and other parts of the coast. These imports may be valued at 500,000l. per annum.
Mombas and Melinda are both well adapted for trade, which at one time was of considerable importance between these places and India and Arabia; but Melinda, in less than a century after it had been conquered by the Portuguese, ceased to be a place of any importance.
Lamu, in latitude 2° 15′ 45″ S., and longitude 41° 1′ 5″ E., is a place of considerable trade, more especially in hides and the general exports from Zanzibar. Brava, in latitude 1° 6′ 40″ N. and longitude 44° 3′ E., carries on a considerable trade with India and Arabia, and a rapidly-increasing one with America.