African travelling, by spending the remainder of the
dry season in inspecting various places on the coast ;
and, if 'a favourable opportunity presented itself, he
felt desirous of having a peep at the snowy Kilimandjaro
Mountain, of which the Rev. Mr Rebmann, who
first discovered it, had sent home reports, and which
had excited such angry and unseemly contests amongst
our usually sedate though speculative carpet-geogra-
phers in England as rendered a further inspection
highly necessary.
Now, as the Royal Geographical Society had desired
us to place ourselves in communication with Mr Rebmann,
who was then at his mission-station, Kisul-
udini, at Rabbai, on a high hill at the back of Mom-
bas, and to try and solicit him to go with us into the
interior, where it was thought his experience in the
native languages would be useful to the expedition,
—my companion hired a small beden, or half-decked
Arab vessel, by the month, to take us about wherever
we pleased ; and on the 5th January 1857, having
engaged a respectable half-caste Arab Sheikh, named
Said, to be our guide and interpreter, we took leave
of our host, set sail, and steered northwards, coasting
along the shores of this beautiful clove island, until
we left it, and shortly afterwards sighted the still
more lovely island of Pemba, or “ The Emerald Isle”
of the Arabs—named, doubtless, from the surprising
verdure of its trees and plants. Here we called in
at Chak-chak, the principal place, where there is a
rude little fort and small garrison of Beluch soldiers,
and a Wall, or governor. Starting the following
morning, we put to sea again, and in three days—
sailing against a strong southerly current, aggravated
by a stiff north-easterly breeze, almost too much for
our cranky little vessel, and which frightened the
crew and our little timid Sheikh so much that they
all lost presence of mind, and with the greatest difficulty
were repressed from “ Touting ship,” and wrecking
themselves, together with us, on the shores of the
coast—we harboured in the Mombas creek.
Mombas on the north, like Kilua on the south, are
the two largest garrison towns belonging to the Sultan
on the main shores. They each have a Wali or governor,
custom officers, and a Beluch guard ; and have
certain attractions to the antiquarian in the shape
of Portuguese ruins. We left our traps here to be
housed by a Banyan called Lakshmidos, the collector
of customs,^ and started on the 17th January to visit
Mr Rebmann, beyond the hills overlooking this place.
It was a good day’s work, and was commenced by
rowing about ten miles up the Rabbai branch of the
creek we were in, until we arrived at the foot of the
hills bearing the same name, beyond which his house
stands. This inlet was fringed with such dense masses
of the mangrove shrub, on which clung countless
numbers of small tree - oysters, — adhering to their
branches in clusters, and looking as though they sub-
* Banyans axe the only class of coloured, men who have the ability
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