The masnafu is rare like the khesi; it is a mixed silk and cotton cloth, of striped pattern, made at Maskat. The cheapest is a piece of 1·75 yards, costing from 2 to 5 dollars, and highly regarded in Unyamwezi; the larger kinds, of 2·50 yards, rise from 5 to 6 dollars, and the Arabs will pay from 20 to 25 dollars for those worked with gold thread.
These notes upon the prices of importations into Central Africa rest upon the authority of the Hindus, and principally of Ladha Damha, the collector of customs at Zanzibar. Specimens of the cloths were deposited with the Royal Geographical Society of London, and were described by the kindness of Mr. Alderman Botterill, F.R.G.S.
Remain for consideration the minor and local items of traffic.
The skull-caps are of two kinds. One is a little fez, locally called kummah. It is made in France, rarely at Bagdad, and sells at Zanzibar for 5 dols. 50 cents to 9 dollars per dozen. The cheaper kind is preferred in Unyamwezi; it is carried up from the coast by Arab slaves and Wasawahili merchants, and is a favourite wear with the sultan and the mtongi. At Unyanyembe the price of the fez rises to 1 dollar. The “alfiyyah” is the common Surat cap, worked with silk upon a cotton ground; it is affected by the Diwans and Shomwis of the coasts. The “vis-gol,” or 20-stitch, preferred for importation, cost 8 dollars per score; the “tris-gol,” or 30-stitch, 13 dollars; and the “chalis-gol,” or 40-stitch, 18 dollars.
Besides these articles, a little hardware finds its way into the country. Knives, razors, fish-hooks, and needles are useful, especially in the transit of Uzaramo. As an investment they are useless; the people, who make for themselves an article which satisfies their wants, will not part with valuables to secure one a little better. They have small axes and sharp spears, consequently they will not buy dear cutlery; they have gourds, and therefore they care little for glass and china. The Birmingham trinkets and knicknacks, of which travellers take large outfits to savage and barbarous countries, would in East Africa be accepted by women and children as presents, but unless in exceptional cases they would not procure a pound of grain; mirrors are cheap and abundant at Zanzibar, yet they are rarely imported into the interior. The people will devise new bijouterie for themselves, but they will not borrow it from strangers. In the maritime regions, where the tribes are more civilised, they will covet such foreign contrivances, as dollars, blankets, snuff-boxes, and tin cylinders which can be converted into tobacco pouches: the Wanyamwezi would not regard them. Similarly in Somaliland, a case of Birmingham goods carried through the country returned to Aden almost full.
Coffee, sugar, and soap may generally be obtained in small quantities from the Arabs of Unyanyembe. At Zanzibar the price of common coffee is 3 dollars 75 cents, and of Mocha 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah. Sugar is of three kinds: the buluji, or loaf-sugar, imported from America, averages 6 annas; sukkari za mawe, or sugar-candy, fetches upon the island 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah; and the bungálá, or sukkari za mchanga (brown Bengal sugar), costs 3 dollars 50 cents; gur, or molasses, sells at Zanzibar for 1 dollar 25 cents per frasilah. Soap is brought to Zanzibar island by the Americans, French, and India merchants.
The other articles of importation into Zanzibar, which, however, so rarely find their way into the interior, that they do not merit detailed notice, are—rice and other cereals from Bombay and Western India; shipping materials, canvas, rigging, hempen cord, planks and boards, paint, pitch, turpentine, linseed-oil, bees’-wax, and tar, from America and India; metals from Europe and India; furniture from Europe and America, China and Bombay; carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia; mats from Madagascar; made-up clothes from Maskat and Yemen; glassware from Europe and America; pottery, paper, and candles from Europe and Bombay; kuzah (water-jars) from the Persian Gulf; woods and timber from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the coast as far north as Mombasah; skins and hides from the Banadir; salt-fish (shark and others) from Oman, Hazramaut, and the Benadir; brandy, rum, peppermint, eau de Cologne, syrups and pickles, tobacco, cigars, and tea, from Bombay, France, and the Mauritius; rose-water from the Gulf; attar of rose and of sandal from Bombay; dates, almonds, and raisins from Arabia and the Gulf; gums and ambergris from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the “Sayf-Tawil” (the long low coast extending from Ras Awath, in N. lat. 5° 33′, to Ras el-Khayl, N. lat. 7° 44′); aloes and dragon’s-blood from Socotra; incense, gum Arabic, and myrrh from the Somali country and the Benadir; turmeric, opium, ginger, nutmegs, colombo-root, cardamoms, cinnamon, aniseed, camphor, benzoin, assafœtida, saltpetre, potash, blue vitriol, alum, soda, saffron, garlic, fenugreek, and other drugs and spices from Bombay and Western India.
The staple articles of the internal trade throughout the regions extending from the coast of the Indian Ocean to the lakes of Central Africa are comprised in slaves and cattle, salt, iron, tobacco, mats and strainers, and tree-barks and ropes. Of these, all except salt have been noticed in detail in the preceding pages.
Salt is brought down during the season from East Arabia to Zanzibar by Arab dows, and is heaped up for sale on a strip of clear ground under the eastern face of the gurayza or fort. It is of two kinds: the fine rock salt sells at 6 annas per frasilah, and the inferior, which is dark and sandy, at about half that price. On the coast the principal ports and towns supply themselves with sea-salt evaporated in the rudest way. Pits sunk near the numerous lagoons and backwaters allow the saline particles to infiltrate; the contents, then placed in a pierced earthen pot, are allowed to strain into a second beneath. They are inspissated by boiling, and are finally dried in the sun, when the mass assumes the form of sand. This coarse salt is sold after the rains, when it abounds, for its weight of holcus; when dear, the price is doubled. In the interior there are two great markets, and the regularity of communication enables the people to fare better as regards the luxury than the more civilised races of Abyssinia and Harar, where of a millionnaire it is said, “he eateth salt.” An inferior article is exported from Ugogo, about half-way between the East Coast and the Tanganyika Lake. A superior quality is extracted from the pits near the Rusugi River in Western Uvinza, distant but a few days from Ujiji. For the prices and other conditions of sale the reader is referred to Chapters V. and VII.
The subject of exports will be treated of at some length; it is not only interesting from its intrinsic value, but it is capable of considerable development, and it also offers a ready entrance for civilisation. The African will never allow the roads to be permanently closed—none but the highly refined amongst mankind can contemplate with satisfaction a life of utter savagery. The Arab is too wise to despise “protection,” but he will not refuse to avail himself of assistance offered by foreigners when they appear as capitalists. Hitherto British interests have been neglected in this portion of the African continent, and the name of England is unknown in the interior. Upon the island of Zanzibar, in 1857-8, there was not an English firm; no line of steamers connected it with India or the Cape, and, during the dead season, nine months have elapsed before the answer to a letter has been received from home.