Zanzibar. Vol. I
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ZANZIBAR. VOL. I. _-~ I j'i ANCIENT TOMB AT TONGO-NI. Z zAN ZI BAR; CITY, ISLAND, AND COAST. RICHARD BY F. BURTON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. 1872. [All Rights reserved.] SOHN CHILDS AND SON, ]'RINTERS. TO THE MEMORY OF MY OLD AND LA'MENTED FRIEND, (F.R.C., ETC. ETC., STAFF SURGEON, BOMBAY ARMY), THIS NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY, IN WHICH FATE PREVENTED HIS TAKING PART, IS INSCRIBED WITH THE DEEPEST FEELINGS OF AFFECTION AND REGRET. -al CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER I. PREPARATORY .. PAGE .. .. .. 1 CHAPTER II. ARRIVAL AT ZANZIBAR ISLAND .. .... 16 CHAPTER III. HOW THE NILE QUESTION STOOD IN THE YEAR OF GRACE 1856 .. 88 CHAPTER IV. A STROLL THROUGH ZANZIBAR CITY .. t .. 66 CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL .. .. .. 116 SECT. I. AFRICA, EAST AND WEST-'ZANZIBAR' EXPLAINED-MENOUTHIAS-POSITION AND FORMATION-THE EAST AFRICAN CURRENT-NAVIGATION-ASPECTOFTHEISLAND .. .. 116 II. METEOROLOGICAL NOTES-THE DOUBLE SEASONS, &c. 150 Ill. CLIMATE CONTINUED-NOTES ON THE NOSOLOGY OF ZANZIBAR -EFFECTSONSTRANGERS.... 76 IV. NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF ZANZIBAR.. .. .. 197 V. NOTES ON THE FLORA OF ZANZIBAR.. 218 VI. THE INDUSTRY OF ZANZIBAR.. .. .. .. .. 252 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. PAGE VISIT TO THE PRINCE SAYYID MAJID.-THE GOVERNMENT OF ZANZIBAR .. .. .. ... 256 CHAPTER VII. A CHRONICLE OF ZANZIBAR.-THE CAREER OF THE LATE 'IMAM,' SAYYID SAID .. .. .. .... .. 276 CHAPTER VIII. ETHNOLOGY OF ZANZIBAR.-THE FOREIGN RESIDENTS 312 CHAPTER IX. HORSEFLESH AT ZANZIBAR.-THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY, AND THE CLOVE PLANTATIONS .. .. .. .. .. ..346 CHAPTER X. ETHNOLOGY OF ZANZIBAR.-THEARABS . ..368 CHAPTER XL ETHNOLOGY OF ZANZIBAR. -THE WASAWAHILI AND THE SLAVE!RACES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 407 CHAPTER XII. PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE .. .... 469 APPENDIX. T.AOU R EA490 THE UKARA OR UKEREWE LAKE PREFACE. I FEEL that the reader will expect some allusion to the circumstances which have delayed, till 1871, the publication of a journal ready to appear in 1860. The following letter will explain the recovery of a long report, forwarded by me in 1857, under an address, very legibly written in ink, upon its cover, to the late Dr Norton Shaw, then Secretary Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain. 'No. 9, of 1865. General Department, Bombay Castle, 281h February, 1865. 'To The Under Secretary of State for India, London. 'Sir, No. 9, A. The Secretary R. Geog. Society, Whitehall Place, London. With reference to the packet addressed, as per margin, which was sent to you vil Southampton Irom the Separate Department, by the Overland Mail of the 14th instant, I have the honour to subjoin for your information copyof a note on the subject from the Hon. W. E. Frere, dated the 5th idem. PI.EFA CE. 'When searching the strong box belonging to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society yesterday I found the accompanying parcel, directed to the Secretary Royal Geographical Society, with a pencil note upon it, requesting that it might be sent to the Secretary of State, Foreign Office. From the signature in the corner, R. F. B., I conclude that it must be the manuscript he sent to Colonel Rigby at Zanzibar, and which, from some statements of Mr Burton (to which I cannot at present refer, but of which I have a clear recollection), never reached its destination.' 'I have not been able to discover when or how the parcel was received, nor how the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was to send it to the Foreign Office, except through Government. I therefore send it to you, and perhaps you would send it to the Under Secretary at the India House, with the above explanation, and request that it be sent to its direction. I have, &c., (Signed) C. RAVENscCRoFT, Acting Chief Secretary to Government.' It is not a little curious that, as my first report upon the subject of Zanzibar was diverted from its destination, Mr Frere's memory is unusually short. I intrusted the MS. to the Eurasian apothecary of the Zanzibar Consulate, and I suspected (Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. i. chap. i.) that it had come to an untimely end. The white population at Zanzibar had in those days a great horror of publication, and thus is easily explained how a parcel legibly addressed to the Royal Geographical Society had the honour of passing eight years in the strong box of the 'Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.' PIREFA CE. so the 'Letts' containing my excursions to Sa'adani and to Kilwa also came to temporary grief. Annexed by a skipper on the West African coast, appropriated by his widow, and exposed at a London bookseller's stall (labelled outside, 'Burton Original MS. Diary in Africa'), it was accidentally left by the buyer, an English Artillery officer, in the hall of one of H. M.'s Ministers of State. Here being recognized, it was kindly and courteously returned to me. The meteorological observations made by me on the East African seaboard and at other places during the discovery of the Lakes were also, I would remark, mislaid for years, deep hidden in certain pigeonholes at Whitehall Place. May these three accidents be typical of the fate of my East African Expedition, which, so long the victim of uncontrollable circumstance, appears now, after many weary years, likely to emerge from the shadow which overcast it, and to occupy the position which I ever desired to see it conquer. Thetwo old documents arepublished with the less compunction as Zanzibar, though increasing in importance and now the head-quarters of an Admiralty Court and of two Mission-Schools, with a printing-press and other civilized appliances, has not of late been worked out. The best authorities are still those who appeared about a quarter of a century ago, always excepting, however, the four magnificent volumes, Baron Carl Clare von der Decken's Reisen in Ost- Afrika, in den Jahren 1859 bis 1861, which I first saw at Jerusalem: there too I had the pleasure of making acquaintance with Dr Otto Kersten, who accompanied the unfortunate traveller during the xii PREFA CE. earlier portion of his peregrinations, and who has so ably and efficiently performed his part as editor. Had a certain publisher carried out his expressed intention of introducing a resume of this fine work in English dress to the British public, I should have saved myself the trouble of writing these volumes: the Reisen, however, in the original form are hardly likely to become popular, Moreover, the long interval of a decade has borne fruit : it has given me time to work out the subject, and, better still, to write with calmness and temper upon a theme of the most temper-trying nature, - chap. xii. vol. II. will explain what is meant. Finally, I have something important to say upon the subject of the so-called Victoria Nyanza Lake. I had proposed to enrich the Appendix with extracts from Arab and other medieval authors, who have treated of Zanzibar, Island and Coast. Such an addition, however, would destroy all proportion between the book and its subject: I have therefore confined myself to notes on cominerce and tariffs of prices ii 1857 to 1859, to meteorological observations, and to Capt. Smee's coasting voyage, which dates from January, 1811. The latter will supply an excellent birds-eye view of those parts of the Zanzibar mainland which were not visited by the East African Expedition. RICHARD F. BURTON. London, Od. 15, 1871. ZANZIBAR. PART I. THE CITY AND THE ISLAND. ' Of a territoly within a fortnight's sail of us, we scarcely know more than we do of much of Central Africa, infinitely less than we do of the shores of the Icy Sea.'TRANs. BoamY GEOG. Soc., voL xii. 'Si fueris sapiens, sapientibus utere factis, Si ignarus mordax, utere dente tuo.' FR. Jo.o Dr SANT' ANoELO. ZANZIBAR. CHAPTER I. PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 'We were now landed upon the Continent of Africa, the most desolate, desert, and inhospitable country in the world, even Greenland and Nova Zembla itself not excepted.'-DiFoE. I coup]D not have believed, before Experience taught me, how sad and solemn is the moment when a man sits down to think over and to write out the tale of what was before the last Decade began. How many thoughts and memories crowd upon the mind! How many ghosts and phantoms start up from the brain-the shreds of hopes destroyed and of aims made futile; of ends accomplished and of prizes won; the failures and the successes alike half forgotten! How many loves and friendships have waxed cold in the presence of new ties! How many graves VOL. I. I JOIN THE BASHI BUZUKS. have closed over their dead during those short ten years-that epitome of the past ! And when the lesson strikes the head, The weary heart grows cold.' The result of a skirmish with the Somal of Berberah (April 19, 1855) was, in my case, a visit on sick leave- to England. Arrived there, I lost no time in recovering health, and in volunteering for active Crimean service. The campaign, however, was but too advanced; all 'appointments' at head-quarters had been filled up; and new comers, such as I was, could look only to the Bashi Buzuks,' or to the Turkish Contingent.' My choice was readily made. There was, indeed, no comparison between serving under Major-General W. F. Beatson, an experienced Light-Cavalry man who had seen rough work in the saddle from Spain to Eastern iHindustan; and under an individual, half-civilian, half-reformed Adjutant-General, whose specialty was, and ever had been, foolscap-literally and metaphorically.