attracted to any special feature, because all is
toned down to a uniform softness b y the exhalation
rising from the warm heaving bosom of
the island. His imagination is therefore caught
and exercised, his mind loses its restless activity,
and reposes under the influence o f the eternal
summer atmosphere.
Presently on the horizon there rise the thin
upright shadows o f ships’ masts, and to the left
begins to glimmer a pale white mass which, we
are told, is the capital o f the island o f Zanzibar.
Still steaming southward, we come within rifleshot
o f the low green shores, and now begin
to be able to define the capital. It consists o f a!
number o f square massive structures, with little
v a rie ty o f height and all whitewashed, standing
on a point o f low land, separated b y a broad
margin o f sand beach from the sea, with a bay
curving, gently from the point, inwards to the
left towards us.
Within two hours from the time we first caught
sight o f the town, we have dropped anchor about
700 yards from the beach. T he arrival o f the
British India Company’s steamer causes a sensation.
It is the monthly “ mail” from Aden and
Europe! A number o f boats break away from
th e beach and come towards the vessel. Europeans
sit at the stern, the rowers are white-shirted
Wangwana* with red caps. T he former are
*Wangwana (freed negroes).
anxious to hear the news, to g e t newspapers
and letters, and to receive the small parcels sent
b y friendly hands “ per favour o f captain.”
The stranger, o f course, is intensely interested
in this life existing near the African Equator,
now first revealed to him, and all that he sees
and hears o f figures and faces and sounds is
being freshly impressed on his memory. Figures
and faces are picturesque enough. Happy, pleased-
looking men o f black, yellow, or tawny colour,
with long white cotton shirts, move about with
quick, active motion, and cry out, regardless o f
order, to their friends or mates in the Swahili
or Arabic language, and their friends or mates
respond with equally loud voice and lively
gesture, until, with fresh arrivals, there appears
to be a Babel created, wherein English, French,
Swahili, and Arabic accents mix with Hindi, and,
perhaps, Persian.
In the midst o f such a scene I stepped into
a boat to he rowed to the house o f my old
friend, Mr. Augustus Sparhawk, o f the Bertram
Agency. A t this low-built, massive-looking house
near Shangani Point, I was welcomed with all
the friendliness and hospitality o f my first visit,
when, three years and a half previously, I arrived
at Zanzibar to set out for the discovery o f
Livingstone.
With Mr. Sparhawk’s aid I soon succeeded
in housing comfortably my three young English