fine; pomegranate does not seem to succeed. The
boundaries of farms are often marked by tbe castor-
oil bust.
Miserable-looking camels drive tbe oil-press. Cattle
do not thrive, though upon the neighbouring island of
Pemba a small breed succeeds. Pew butchers’ shops
are seen; the natives adopt the vegetable and fish
diet, not being able to afford meat. Goats, when castrated
and stall-fed, become very heavy, and their
meat is considered a great delicacy by the Arabs.
Trade has considerably increased at Zanzibar. The
shipping consists chiefly of large native craft—thirty
to forty from Bombay, Muscat, &c., and but three or
four ships from Europe and America. The merchants
have their Exchange, if the place they daily meet in
may be designated by this title. Here human beings,
money, ivory, copal, cloves, cloths, beads, rice, cowries,
opercula, and goods from all quarters of the world,
change hands. The largest single tusk we saw at
Zanzibar weighed 165l> lb .; length, 8 feet 7-ij? inches;
greatest circumference, 1 foot 11 inches all of the
purest blue-tinted soft ivory. I t belonged to Mr
Webb, the American consul. He had also an enormous
hippopotamus tusk, nine inches greatest circumference,
and turning, like the horn of a Highland ram,
once and a half round. As the tusk increases in size,
a corresponding rise takes place in its value per lb.
Tortoise-shell fetched 15s. per lb.; for hippopotamus
ivory there was then no demand in Europe.
Several stirring events occurred while we were at
Zanzibar. Once the Brisk got information of a slaver,
-but on sailing in search could find nothing of her.
Again, after she had left, the Sultan requested Speke
to take one of his ships of war and capture a slaver at
Panganee; but this also proved a fruitless chase; and
as we were anxious to return to the preparations for
the march, we left the Sultan’s corvette at sea, and
proceeded homewards, at 10 a .m ., in an open boat of
ten oars—distance to Zanzibar, 40 miles. We pulled
till 5 p.m., found the current carrying us to the Turban
Ocean, and put in for the night on a coral isle.
Our brave crew of blacks, the same class of men
who subsequently accompanied us upon our expedition,
started again at four in the morning, rowing, off
and on, till we reached home at eight that evening.
The rowers accomplished this great feat without a
grumble, singing the greater part of the way, though
with nothing to cheer them for the two days but a
few biscuits, sweetmeats, and oranges. Who can fail
to admire such spirit! But we have the same class of
African, when roaming amid his native wilds free from
all control, committing murder without scruple ; and
an illustration of this came under our notice here.
Dr Roscher, a German gentleman, while exploring
near Lake Nyassa, was murdered in 1859 by natives
who coveted his scientific instruments. The sultan of
the country, justly indignant, sent four men to Zanzibar
to stand their trial for the murder. Two were condemned,
and suffered decapitation on the 23d August.
I was present, going to the execution with the “ sur-
rung” or boatswain of the British Consulate, who
cleared the way for me to get near the two men. They
squatted outside the fort wall with perfect composure,
naked from head to foot, except a waistcloth; neither
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