The exports are—hides, bullocks, horses, and camels, oil from the joints of camels, salt beef, great varieties of the skins of wild animals, taken by Gallas who go from Zanzibar to Cape Guardafui. Small horses, purchased here from five to six dollars each, will realize from sixty to seventy dollars at the Mauritius.
The Sumalis inhabit the sea coast north from the equator, round Cape Guardafui to Zeyla; the whole of this vast extent of country is but little known to us.
The kingdom of Kimweri, or Usambara, more generally known as the Pangany district, is rich in produce, which may be increased to supply any demand. The sugar-cane is very luxuriant in its growth, and forests of magnificent timber await the woodman’s axe, with the Pangany and its tributaries to carry it to the ocean.
Dr. Krapf, in describing one of these forests, writes, “This forest is worth millions of money for its fine, long, and straight timber, being as useful for ship-building as for carpentering;” and again, “We descended into a large forest of timber, sufficient for centuries to come. The trees are big and straight, from 70 to 100 feet in height.”
The recent discoveries of Captains Burton and Speke, in the country immediately to the south of this, throw a new light on a region hitherto wrapped in the deepest mystery, and give access into the far interior, even to the Victoria Tanganyka lake, and perhaps to the sources of the Nile.
To the northward of Malinda the river Dana, under the name of Osi, reaches the Indian Ocean. It is stated to flow from the eastern side of Mount Kenia; that it is navigable for boats, from the India Ocean to the Ukambani country; that there are no rocks in the way of navigation, and that even during the dry season the water reaches as high as a man’s neck, while during the rains it cannot be forded. Its ordinary breadth is two hundred yards, and it is the privilege of the people of Mbé to carry strangers proceeding to Kikuyu, or other countries, from one bank to another.
A small steamer placed on this river would soon open the country to European commerce; and from the source of the Dana to that of the White Nile can be no great distance.
By the Dana, or Kilimansi, is assuredly the most direct route for settling the great geographical question of the sources of the Nile.
About 200 miles from Cape Guardafui lies the island of Socotra, the principal commercial products of which are derived from the wild plants, and are aloes and dragon’s-blood. The aloe plant (Aloe spicata or Socotrina) in the western districts covers the hills for many miles, at an elevation of from 500 to 2000 feet above the plains. This aloe is also to be found along the whole east coast of Africa, even as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. The dragon’s-blood tree also grows on the western portion of Socotra, at an elevation of from 800 to 2000 feet; and, as well as the aloe, is in such abundance that at least ten times the quantity of these drugs which at present is exported from the island might be easily procured.