Seven Legs Across the Seas: A Printer's Impressions of Many Lands

by Samuel Murray

Up to 1897 Zanzibar was one of the most noted slave-trading centers in the world. Slaves shipped from that place numbered from 6,000 to 10,000 a year. The best building in the city is the Sultan's palace, but this has recently been converted into an office building for Protectorate officials; the Sultan's harem building, located in a city park, is now used as a place of amusement; but, as Arabs own most of the land, and also the property in the city, Zanzibar will always remain as it is.

A distance of seven miles, from the city to Bu-bu-bu, comprises the railway system of Zanzibar. The fare is 32 cents first-class and 16 cents second-class, the run taking 45 minutes. Passing through a street where almost everything is sold—an Indian bazaar—one may reach out of the window of the railway coach and pull off wearing apparel, shoes, etc., that are displayed on rope lines outside of the buildings on the narrow street. Through such places the train seems to be walled in by blacks on both sides.

The rupee is in use in Zanzibar, along the coast places, and in the interior in that section of the African continent. The value of the rupee in American money is 32 cents, and the anna two cents. The anna piece is nickel, with a hole in the center, and almost every one carries these on a string. It is certainly odd to see a man pull from his pocket a string about a foot or eighteen inches in length and take from it one to half a dozen annas with bored-out centers.

America was the first country to establish a consulate in Zanzibar, in 1836. The natives then took a fancy to our bright-colored calico, which they wear to-day, though close competition for that trade has taken place through other nations importing a similar class of goods.

The sun is very hot here, and flowers are temporarily faded by 10 o'clock in the morning. Should a white person walk a few feet in the sun bare-headed he would be very apt to fall from sunstroke.

The date palm, a tree 20 to 30 feet high, with a bare trunk, as the cocoanut palm, but with smaller limbs and a more spreading top, grows here. It produces its fruit in bunches, similar to the banana plant. Some of the clusters of dates depending from the top will half fill a barrel. A wide leaf grows from the stem, to which the dates grow, and in time, the leaf dies and then bends. It happens, though, that when it bends it covers and thus protects the large cluster of fruit. Zanzibar oranges are said to be the sweetest that grow.

One may hear a few taps on a drum at a corner of an alley in the native quarter any time—the signal that there will be a dance that evening.

Automobiles are seen about the city, and an electric light plant and a wireless station are among the limited public utilities.

Clove and cocoanut plantations are the principal industries of Zanzibar. The clove tree is of the myrtle family, and the older it grows the greater the yield. Practically all the cloves used in the world come from the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. There are sent to the United States from these islands from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds of cloves each year. The output for a year is from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 pounds. It requires 10 years' time from planting before the clove tree blossoms. The Island of Pemba produces 75 per cent. of a year's crop. A hurricane blew down the trees growing on Zanzibar island in 1872, while those on Pemba island were not disturbed. The Pemba trees are 100 years old, those of Zanzibar island only 50 years old. They are planted 24 feet apart each way, and 100 grow on an acre.

The clove of commerce is the bud of the clove tree, picked before the petals open. The clove we use would be the seed of the clove tree were the petals allowed to expand. The buds are picked by natives, whose carelessness often destroys bearing limbs. When picked, the buds are placed on matting, and remain exposed to the sun for three days, when they become dried. A clove tree buds for three months, so this is the clove-bud picking period. The tree grows to a height of 30 feet, is bushy, with small limbs, on all of which buds grow. The leaf of the clove tree resembles that of the English poplar. The buds are more numerous on the limbs at intervals of four and five years than during the years between. A tree produces from five to seven pounds a year, and the price of cloves range from 16 to 20 cents a pound. Growers have to pay a tax to the government of 25 per cent. of their yield.