the continent. Here th ey live v e ry happily with
the well-to-do Coast man, or Mswahili, poor
Banyans, Hindis, Persians, Arabs, and Baluchis,
respectable slave artisans, and tradesmen. When
the people have donned their holiday attire,
Ngambu becomes picturesque, even g a y , and
yields itself up to a wild, frolicsome abandon
o f mirth. On working days, though the colours
are still varied, and g iv e relief to the clay walls
and withered palm-frond roofs, this poor man’s
district has a dingy hue, which black faces, and
semi-naked bodies seem to deepen. However,
the quarter is only a mile and a half long, and,
quickening our paces, we soon have before us
detached houses and huts, clusters o f cocoa-nut
palms and ancient mango trees crowned with
enormous dark green domes o f foliage. For about
three miles one can enjoy , a gallop along an
ochreous-coloured road o f respectable width,
bordered with hedges. Behind the hedges grow
the sugar-cane, banana, palm, orange, clove,
cinnamon, and jack-fruit trees, cassava, castor-oil,
diversified with patches o f millet, Indian corn,
sweet potatoes, and egg-plant, and almost every
vegetable o f tropic growth. T h e fields, gently
undulating, display the variety o f their vegetation,
on which the lights and shadows play, deepening
or paling as the setting sun clouds or reveals
the charms o f the verdure.
Finally arriving upon the crest o f Wirezu hill,
■ Zanzibar.] THE GRAVEYARD OF ZANZIBAR. 45
■we have a most beautiful view o f the roadstead
Band town o f Zanzibar, and, as we turn to regard
Bit, are struck with the landscape lying at our
B feet. Sloping aw ay gradually towards the town,
B the tropical trees already mentioned seem, in the
i bird’s-eye view, to mass themselves into a thin
B forest, out o f which, however, we can p ick out
B clearly the details o f tree and hut. Whatever
B o f beauty may be in the scene, it is Nature’s
H own, for man has done little; he has but plant-
■ ed a root, or a seed, or a tender sapling care-
Blessly. Nature has nourished the root and the
I seed and the sapling, until th ey became sturdy
j|;giants, rising one above another in hillocks o f
» d a rk green verdure, and has given to the whole
»th a t wonderful depth and variety o f colour which
1 she only exhibits in the Tropics.
The walk to Mnazi-Moya will compel the
■traveller to moralize, and meditate pensively.
■Decay speaks to him, and from the moment he
■leaves the house to the moment he returns, his
■mind is constantly dwelling upon mortality. For,
H ;a fte r lounging through two or three lanes, he
I comes to a populous graveyard, over which the
■wild grass has obtained supreme control, and
1 through the stalks o f which show white the
■fading and moss-touched headstones. Acro s s
B the extensive acreage allotted to the victims o f
I the sad cholera y e a rs, the Prince o f Zanzibar
B^has ruthlessly cut his w a y to form a garden,