This is ignored by Captain Guillain (Appendix, vol. iii.), who makes

the Wasawahili retain all the names of the Arab months.

Footnote 45:

In 1870, for instance, it was kept in Syria on the 11th of ‘Adar’

(March), old style, and on Adar 23rd, new style.

Footnote 46:

According to Captain Guillain, in 1846-7 it corresponded with August

29 (the New Year’s Day of Abyssinia and Egypt in 1844); in 1848 with

August 28; and in 1850, 51, 52 with August 27. He was also informed

that the Vuli began 20 days after the Nau-roz, and lasted 30 (Sept. 20

to Oct. 20), that the Msika (which he writes Mouaka) begins 90 days

after the 110th (Dec. 20 to March 20), and that the Mcho’o commences

20 days after the 280 (June 10 to July 1). That author, moreover,

remarks that as the new Persian calendar adds to every century 22

days, instead of our 24 days, the Nau-roz thus falls behind ours 48

hours in each hundred years. Thus between 1829 and 1879, the New

Year’s Day should occur between the 28th and 29th August.

Footnote 47:

In some cases an emetic will cut short the enemy. The allopathic

remedies are evacuants, cooling lotions applied to the head, and

sulphate of quinine (4 to 12 grains three or four times per diem),

with appropriate treatment for complications. Calomel and tartar

emetic must be avoided on account of their depressing effects. Liquor

arsenicalis and the Tinctura Warburgii (Warburg’s Drops), which is

said to have failed in yellow fever, have cured malignant, inveterate,

and chronic cases. The Persians at one time in Zanzibar besieged

Colonel Hamerton’s door for this ‘Ab-i-hayyát’—water of life. The

invaluable wet sheet and the Turkish bath were unknown at Zanzibar in

1857.

Footnote 48:

Mr Lyons M’Leod says (vol. ii. 347) that a ‘very handsome jet-black

parrot’ is to be procured there.

Footnote 49:

The χελώνη ὀρεινὴ, or mountain-tortoise of the Periplus (chap. i. 15),

may have been a turtle or terrapin. A small quantity of tortoise-shell

is sold on the island by Malagashes (Madagascarians) and Comoro men.

Footnote 50:

The iguana abounds on the West Coast of Africa, and in the Bonny

River, where the huge hideous lizard is Ju-Ju—obnoxious to the honours

of divinity.

Footnote 51:

So Dr Roschenberger mentions at Zanzibar a coluber called boa-

constrictor, and peculiar to America.

Footnote 52:

I have not seen the ‘Fishes of Zanzibar,’ published in 1867 by Lieut.-

Col. Playfair, H.M.’s Consul, and Dr Günther (Van Voorst, 1,

Paternoster Row).

Footnote 53:

The eel-shaped fishes with green bones have the reputation of causing

stomach-pains and vomiting. I may observe that the Oriental mind

readily connects venom and verdant colours.

Footnote 54:

Nází, in Kisawahili, is the fruit, Mnází the tree: in this case the

initial letter is evidently a contraction of Mti, a tree. The name for

the sun-dried meat, ‘kobra,’ is borrowed from the Hindustani ‘khopra.’

Footnote 55:

I shall speak of the clove in a subsequent chapter.

Footnote 56:

The Hindu anna, which contains four pice, is here reckoned at eight.

Footnote 57:

The mango pickles of Makdishu are described by Ibu Batutah in A.D.

1331.

Footnote 58:

Missionary of the Southern Baptist Connexion. He published a book of

Travels in Western Africa, and a Grammar and Dictionary of the Yoruba

language, printed by the Smithsonian Institution (May, 1858).

Footnote 59:

The ‘hot amourist’ pronounces this drink to be الامساک کثير

Footnote 60:

The seeds cannot easily be digested. Thus the lower regions of

Fernando Po are a thicket of guava, suggesting the Jackal-coffee of

the Neilgherries.

Footnote 61:

According to my friend Mr P. L. Simmonds (The Journal of Applied

Science) this bast fetches readily £14 to £15 per ton, and ‘although

the paper makers will buy any quantity brought to market, it is to be

regretted that they will offer no combined assistance to facilitate

the obtaining larger supplies of this important product.’

Footnote 62:

The Inzimbati (a leguminosa) and Invoulí of Capt. Guillain.

Footnote 63:

Palpably a corruption of the Portuguese Grâo—grain generally.

Footnote 64:

I have read in some book that the ‘Pywaree’ of Guiana is made from the

masticated and fermented juice of the cassava-‘flower’—probably for—

‘flour.’

Footnote 65:

I heard also of antimony on the Brazilian coast, opposite the Island

of S. Sebastião, in the Province of S. Paulo, but I have not seen any

specimens of it.

CHAPTER VI.

VISIT TO THE PRINCE SAYYID MAJID.—THE GOVERNMENT OF ZANZIBAR.

‘Zanzibar is an island of Africa, on the coast of Zanzibar, governed by

a king who is a tributary to the Portuguese.’ REECE’S CYCLOPÆDIA.

We now proceed to wait upon H. H. the ‘Sayyid of Zanzibar and the

Sawahil,’ who would be somewhat surprised to hear that he is ‘tributary

to the Portuguese.’

The palace lies east of, and close to, the fort. It is fronted by a

wharf, and defended by a stuccoed platform mounting eight or nine brass

guns en barbette, intended more for show than use. The building is a

kind of double-storied, white-washed barrack, about 140 feet long,

roofed with dingy green-red tiles, and pierced with a few windows

jealously raised high from the ground; shutters painted tender-green

temper the sun-glare, and a few stunted, wind-wrung trees beautify the

base. Seaward there is a verandah, in which levees are held, and behind

it are stables and sundry outhouses, an oratory and a graveyard, where

runaway slaves, chained together by the neck, lie in the shade. In this

oratory, as in other mosques, are performed the prayers of the two Great

Festivals which, during the late prince’s life, were recited at the Mto-

ni ‘Cascine.’ Here, too, is the large, gable-ended house commenced in

his elder age by the enterprising Sayyid Said, and built, it is said,

after the model of the Dutch factory at Bander Abbas. It was intended

for levees, and for a hall of pleasure. Unhappily, a large chandelier

dropped from the ceiling, seventy masons were crushed by a falling wall;

and other inauspicious omens made men predict that the prince would

never enter the ‘Akhir el Zaman’ (End of Time). It has since been shut

up, like one of our ghost-haunted houses, which it not a little

resembles.

In the centre of the square, opposite the palace, stands the Sayyid’s

flag-staff, where the ‘Bákúr’ is administered, where executions take

place, and where, according to an American traveller,[66] distinguished

criminals are fastened to a pole, and are tied from the ankles to the

throat, ‘till the soul of the dying man is literally squeezed out of its

earthly tenement.’ The author, who visited Zanzibar in ‘the mercanteel,’

was grievously hoaxed by some kind friend. Under Sayyid Said torture was

unknown, death was inflicted according to Koranic law, and only one

mutilation is recorded. I may remark, en passant, that in this part of

the world the two master romancers, Ignorance and Interest, have been

busily at work; and that many a slander rests upon the slenderest

foundation of fact. Adventurers have circulated the most ridiculous

tales. We hear, or rather we have heard, of 300,000 Arab cavalry, and

hordes of steel-clad negroes, possibly a tradition of the ‘Zeng’

(Zanzibarians), who, in the days of the Caliphs, plundered Basrah. We

read of brilliant troops of horse artillery, whose only existence was in

the brain of some unprincipled speculator; and yet this report sent a

battery from Woolwich as a present for the late Sayyid. To the same

category belong the Amazons bestriding war-bul locks, doubtless a

revival of El Masudi, who in our tenth century reported that the ‘King

of Zeng’ commanded, Dahoman-like, an army of soldieresses, mounted, as

are the Kafirs, upon oxen—the Portuguese ‘boi-cavallos.’ Some travellers

have asserted that the Cape tribes learned cattle-riding from Europeans:

but Camoens, making his hero land at the Aguada de S. Braz, after

sailing from the Angra de Santa Elena, expressly states—

‘Embrown’d the women by the burning clime,

On slow-paced oxen riding came along.’—Canto V. 63.

Durbars, or levees, are held three times a day, after dawn-prayers, in

the afternoon, and at night. The ceremonial is simple. The lieges,

passing the two Sepoys on guard at the gate, enter with the usual Moslem

salutation, and after kissing hands take their appointed places. There

is no lord of the basin, lord of the towel, or lord of the pelisse,

deemed indispensable by every petty Persian governor. The ruler is

addressed, Yá Sídí, my lord, and is spoken of by his subjects as

Sayyidna, our prince. Coffee is served, but only at night; and all forms

of intoxicants are jealously banished. The long, bare reception-hall,

ceilinged with heavy polished beams, and paved with alternate slabs of

white and black marble brought from Marseille, boasts only a few dingy

chandeliers, and three rows of common wooden-bottomed chairs. It is,

however, unencumbered with the usual mean knicknacks, French clocks and

bureaux, cheap prints, gaudy china, and pots of neglected artificial

flowers, supposed to adorn the window-sills; nor, after the fashion of

Zanzibarian grandees, are the sides lined with seamen’s chests, stuffed

full of arms, watches, trinkets, cashmere shawls, medicines, and other

such ‘chow chow.’

The Prince received us at the Sadr, or top of the room, with the usual

courtesy. He was then a young man, whose pleasing features and very

light complexion generally resembled those of his father. This is said

to have been the case with the whole family. We found the ‘divan’ of

Egypt and Turkey unaccountably absent, banished by the comfortless

black-wood ‘Kursi’ of Bombay. After a few minutes’ conversation two

chairs were placed before us, bearing a tray of sweetmeats, biscuits,

and glasses of sherbet; of these we ate and drank a mouthful in

acceptance of hospitality, and we were duly pressed to eat. Lemonade and

confitures take the place of strong waters amongst Europeans, and of the

cocoa-nut milk, the mangoes, and the oranges of humbler establishments.

Pipes, however, though offered by the late Sayyid to distinguished

European guests, are never introduced, in deference to Wahhabi

prejudice; nor did we suffer from the rose-water ablutions of which M.

Guillain complains. Feminine eyes did not peep at us from the inner

apartments; but we were fronted by well-dressed slaves who, as we pass

through the crowded outer hall, will steal, if they can, the gilt

tassels from our sword-knots, and who have picked the pockets of guests,

even when dining with their Prince. H. H. the Sayyid Majid took

considerable interest in our projected journey, and suggested that a

field-piece might be useful to frighten the Washenzi (wild men). We left

the palace much pleased with the kindness and cordiality of its owner,

into whose ear, moreover, evil tongues had whispered the very worst

reports.

The Government of Zanzibar is a royal magistracy, the only form of rule

to which the primitive and undisciplinable Eastern Arab will submit.

Whenever a new measure is brought forward by the Sayyid it is invariably

opposed by the chiefs of clans, who assemble and address him more like

an equal than a superior. One of the princes of Maskat corrected this

turbulent feudality after the fashion of Mohammed Ali Pasha and his

Mamlúk Beys; even now a few summary examples might be made to good

purpose. In the days of the late Sayyid’s highest fortunes the most

tattered of Súris would address him, ‘O Saíd!’ and proceed to sit

unbidden in his presence. Similarly, Ibn Batutah, when describing the

Sultan of Oman, Abu Mohammed bin Nebhan, tells us, ‘he has the habit of

sitting, when he would give audience, in a place outside his palace; he

has neither chamberlain nor wazir, and every man, stranger or subject,

is free to approach him.’ Sometimes a noble, when ordered into arrest at

Zanzibar, has collected his friends, armed his slaves, and fortified his

house. One Salim bin Abdallah, who had a gang of 2000 musketeer negroes,

used to wage a petty war with the Sayyid’s servile hosts. It is,

perhaps, the result of climate that these disturbances have never

developed into revolutions.

The ‘ministers’ spoken of by strangers are the Nakhodás of the fleet: by

virtue of a few French or English sentences, they are summoned when

business is to be transacted with Europeans who are not linguists. The

late Sayyid’s only secretary and chief interpreter was Ahmad bin Aman of

Basrah (Bussorah), a half-cast Arab, popularly called by the lieges

‘Wajhayn’ or ‘two faces.’ According to some he was a Sabi or Sabæan,

commonly known as a Christian of Saint John; and men declare that he

began life as a cabin-boy and rose by his unusual astuteness. When any

question of unusual gravity occurs the Sayyid summons the Ulema, the

Shaykhs, and especially the two Kazis, Shaykh Muhiyy el Din, a Lamu

doctor of the Sunni school, and Shaykh Mohammed, an Abázi. Causes tried

by ecclesiastics generally depend upon the extent of bribery; but there

is always an appeal to the Prince, or in his absence to the Governor.

The Kazis punish by imprisonment more or less severe. The stocks are set

up in every plantation; the fetters are heavy, and there is, if wanted,

a ponderous iron ring with long spikes, significantly termed in Persian

the ‘Tauk i Ta’at,’ collar of obedience. Instant justice is the order of

the day, and the crooked stick (bákúr) plays a goodly and necessary

part; how necessary we see in the present state of Syria, whence the

‘Tanzimat’ constitution has banished the only penalty that ruffians

fear. From ten to fifty blows are usually inflicted: in the Gulf, when

the bastinado is to be administered with the Niháyet el Azáb (extreme

rigour), half-a-dozen men work upon the culprit’s back, belly, and

sides, and a hundred strokes suffice to kill him. Severe examples are

sometimes necessary, though chastisement is on the whole wild and

unfrequent. Zanzibar town is subject to fires, originating with the

slaves, often in drunkenness, more often for plunder; and this induced

the late Sayyid to forbid the building of cajan ‘tabernacles’ (Makuti or

Banda-ni) upon the house-tops. His orders were obeyed for four months,

an unusually long time; and at last Europeans, in consequence of the

danger which threatened them, were compelled personally to interfere

with the severest preventive treatment. The Prince alone has the power

of pronouncing a capital sentence; and, as usual in Moslem countries,

where murder is a private, not a public, offence, the criminal is

despatched by the relatives of the slain. Death may be inflicted by the

master of the house upon a violator of domicile, gallant, or thief; the

sword is drawn, and the intruder is at once cut down. Fines and

confiscations, which have taken the place of the Koranic mutilation, are

somewhat common, especially when impudent frauds are practised upon the

Prince’s property. Confinement in the fort, I have said, is severe, but

not so much feared as at Maskat, whose rock dungeon is an Aceldama; I

saw something of the kind at Fernando Po. Criminals have a wholesome

horror of being the ruler’s guest, yet they sometimes escape by the

silver key, and, once upon the mainland, they may laugh at justice. I

heard of a Banyan who, despite being double-ironed, managed to ‘make

tracks.’

The military force of Zanzibar is not imposing. In 1846, throughout the

African possessions of the Sayyid, the permanent force was only 400 men,

namely, about 80 at Zanzibar, 250 at Mombasah, 30 at Lamu, 25 at Patta,

6 to 10 at Kilwa, and sundry pairs at Makdishu and other places; after

that time they were doubled and even trebled. The ‘regulars’ consist of

a guard of honour, a ‘guardia nobile’ of a dozen serviles habited in

cast-off Sepoy uniforms, collected from different corps of the Bombay

army: one musket carries a bayonet, the other a stick. The cost of new

equipments was once asked by the late Sayyid; after glancing at the

total, he exclaimed that the guard itself would not fetch half that sum.

The irregular force is more considerable, and represents the Hayduques

of old Eastern Turkey, the Arnauts or Albanians of Egypt, the Bashi-

Buzuks of El Hejaz, and the Sayyáreh and Zabtiyyeh of modern Syria. The

so-called Baloch are vagrants and freebooters collected from Northern

Arabia and from the southern seaboard of Persia, Mekran, and Kilat: when

the Prince required extra levies he rigged out a vessel and recruited at

Guadel or at Makallah. He preferred the Aryan,[67] as being more

amenable to discipline than the Semite: moreover, the Arab clansman,

like the Highlander of old, though feudally bound to follow his

suzerain, requires the order of his immediate chief, and the latter,

when most wanted, is uncommonly likely to rat or to revolt. The

mercenaries of Zanzibar nominally receive $2 to $3 per mensem, with

rations: practically, the money finds its way more or less into the

pocket of the Jemadar or C. O. The fort is here garrisoned by some 80 of

these men and their negro slaves: the former are equal to double the

number of Arabs in the field, and behind walls they are a match for a

nation of savages. Police by day and night patrols are much wanted at

Zanzibar, where every man must be his own ‘Robert.’ The slaves are

unruly subjects; even those of the fort will commit an occasional

murder, and the suburbs are still far from safe during the dark hours.

The garrison is securely locked up, and in case of most urgent need no

aid is procurable before morning.

[Illustration: WASIN TOWN.]

I may now offer a catalogue raisonné of the late Sayyid’s fleet, which

was intended to keep up the maritime prestige of his predecessors, the

Yu’rabi Imams. The Shah Alam, a double-banked frigate of 1100 tons,

carrying 50 guns (45, says M. Guillain, i. 584), was built at Mazagon in

1820, and now acts guardship, moored off Mto-ni. The ‘Caroline’ (40

guns), the best of the squadron, and built at Bombay, was degraded to be

a merchantman, in which category she visited Marseille (1849): she has,

however, again opened her ports after returning from Maskat. The strong

and handsome ‘Sultana’ was wrecked near Wasin when returning from India.

The ‘Salihi’ was lost in the Persian Gulf; the ‘Sulayman Shah’ and the

‘Humayun Shah,’ in the Gulf of Bengal. The ‘Piedmontese,’ 36 guns, built

at Cochin in 1836, might be repaired at an expense of £10,000. The

‘Victoria’ frigate (40), teak-built in the Mazagon dockyard, is still

sea-worthy. The ‘Rahmani’ corvette (24 guns), is a fast-sailing craft

with great breadth of beam, hailing from Cochin: she was lately fitted

out for a recruiting vessel to Hazramaut. The ‘Artemise’ corvette,

formerly of 18 guns, now a jackass frigate with 10 guns _en barbette_,

was built at Bombay of fine Daman teak, and was lately repaired there,

at an expense of 22,000 Co.’s Rs. Called Colonel Hamerton’s yacht,

because always placed at his disposal by the late Sayyid, she will carry

him on his last voyage, accompanying us to Bagamoyo upon the mainland.

She is commanded by the sailing-master of the fleet, Mohammed bin

Khamis, who has studied navigation and modern languages in London—of him

more anon. The lighter craft are the ‘Salihi’ barque (300 tons), built

in America about 1840, condemned and repaired in Bombay; and the ‘Taj’

brig (125 tons), launched at Cochin in 1829, and originally intended for

a yacht. Besides there is a mosquito squadron composed of some 20

‘batelas,’ each armed with 2 to 6 guns, which serve equally for cabotage

and for campaigning.

The useless, tawdry ‘Prince Regent,’ presented by H. B. Majesty’s

Government to the late Sayyid, was by him passed over in 1840 to the

Governor-General of India. It was sold at Calcutta, and for many years

it was, as a transport, the terror of the eastern soldier. The Sayyid

could not pray amongst the ‘idols’ of gilding and carving; he saw

pollution in every picture, and his Arabs supposed the royal berth to be

the Tábút Hazrat Isa—Our Lord’s coffin. Instead of this article he

wished to receive the present of a steamer, but political and other

objections prevented.[68] Eastern rulers also will not pay high and

regular salaries; and without European engineers every trip would have

cost a boiler. Repairs were impossible at Zanzibar; and, as actually

happened to Mohammed Ali’s expensive machinery in Egypt, the finest work

would have been destroyed by mere neglect. A beautiful model of a steam-

engine was once sent out from England: it was allowed to rust unopened

in the Sayyid’s ‘godowns.’ Still the main want of the Island was rapid

communication. Sometimes nine months elapsed before an answer came from

Bombay: letters and parcels—including my manuscript—were often lost; and

occasionally, after a long cruise, they returned to their starting-

point, much damaged by time and hard usage. The Bombay Post-office

clerks thinking, I presume, that Zanzibar is in Arabia, shipped their

bags to Bushire and Maskat, some thousand miles N. West instead of S.

West of Bombay, and viâ Halifax—half round the world—was often the

speediest way of communication with London. No wonder that letters were

delayed from 7 to 9 months, causing great loss to the trade, and

inconvenience to the authorities. Her Majesty’s proclamation was

published in India on November 1, 1858; the Prince of Zanzibar was

obliged with a copy only in March, 1859. A line of steamers from the

Cape and other places was much talked of; it would certainly obviate

many difficulties, but the Zanzibar merchants who had a snug monopoly

were dead against free-trade and similar appliances of modern

civilization. The French Company then running vessels from Mauritius to

Aden, proposed to touch at Zanzibar if permitted to engage on their own

terms ‘ouvriers libres.’ The liberal offer was declined with thanks.

The Royal Treasury is managed with an extreme simplicity. When the

Prince wants goods or cash he writes an order upon his collector of

customs; the draft is kept as an authority, and the paper is produced at

the general balancing of accounts, which takes place every third or

fourth year. I found it impossible to obtain certain information

concerning the gross amount of customs, and inquiry seemed only to lead

further from the truth. The ruler, the officers under him, and the

traders all have several interests in keeping the secret.

The Custom House is in an inchoate condition; it makes no returns, and

exports being free, it requires neither manifest nor port clearings from

ships about to sail. The customs are farmed out by the Sayyid, and 10

years ago their value was $142,000, or 38 per cent. less than is now

paid. The last contractor was a Cutch Banyan named Jayaram Sewji. The

‘ijáreh’ or lease was generally for five years, and the annual amount

was variously stated at $70,000 to $150,000, in 1859 it had risen to

$196,000 to $220,000.[69] He had left the Island before Sayyid Said’s

death, and though summoned by the Prince Majid, there was little chance

of his committing the folly of obedience. His successor was one Ladha

Damha, also a Bhattia Hindu, and a man of the highest respectability.

These renters declared that they did not collect the amount which they

paid for the privilege: on the other hand, they could privately direct

their caste fellows, do what they pleased with all unprotected by

treaty, and having a monopoly as tradesmen between the wholesale white

merchants and the petty dealers of the coast, they soon became wealthy.

Land cess and port dues were unknown at Zanzibar. The principal source

of revenue was the Custom House, where American and European goods,

bullion excepted, paid the 5 per cent. ad valorem provided by commercial

treaties. Cargo from India paid 5·25, the fractions serving to salary

Custom House officials. The import was levied on all articles

transshipped in any ports of the Zanzibar dominions, unless the cargo

was landed only till the vessel could be repaired. Of course the tariff

was complicated in the extreme, ‘custom’ amongst orientals being the

‘rule of thumb’ further west. The farmers appointed all subordinate

officials, and as these received insufficient salaries, smuggling,

especially in the matters of ivory and slaves, came to their assistance.

The Wasawahili Makhadim, or serviles, contributed an annual poll-tax of

$1 per head, and this may have amounted to 10,000 to 14,000 crowns per

annum. The maximum total of the late Sayyid’s revenue was generally

stated as follows—

Maskat (customs) German crowns $180,000

Mattra (Matrah) 60,000

Maskat and Mattra (octroi from the interior) 20,000

Average receipts from other parts of Africa 20,000

and Arabia

Zanzibar (customs and poll-tax) 160,000

—-—-—

Total in German crowns $440,000

In 1811 Captain Smee computes the revenue of Zanzibar at $60,000 per

annum, adding, however, that he considers it to be much more. In 1846 M.

Guillain gives the revenue arising from customs on coffee and cloves,

Indian rice and melted butter, and divers taxes on shops, indigo, dyes,

thread-makers, silk-spinners, and so forth, as follows—

Total of Oman $136,600

” African dominions 349,000

—-——

Grand total $485,600 = 2,500,000 francs.

The author, who appears to have been ably assisted in his inquiries by

M. Loarer, also states that in the days of Sayyid Said’s father the

farming of the customs at Zanzibar represented $25,000, from which it

gradually rose to $50,000; $60,000; $80,000; $100,000; $105,000;

$120,000; $147,000; $157,000; and $175,000 in 1846. We may safely fix

the revenue in 1857 at a maximum of £90,000 per annum. The expenses of

navy, army, and ‘civil service,’ and the personal expenditure of the

Prince were easily defrayed out of this sum, whilst the surplus must

have been considerable. The income might easily have been increased, and

the outlay have been diminished by improving the administration; but the

Sayyid had ‘some time before his death reached that epoch of life when

age and weariness determine men to consider the status quo as the

supreme wisdom.’

Under the new régime affairs did not improve. An Indian firm farmed the

customs throughout the Zanzibar dominions for the annual sum of

$190,000, and the following is the official statement of the revenues

derived by ‘His Highness the Sultan,’[70] in 1863-4.

Customs dues $190,000

Pemba dues 6,000

Poll-tax of Makhádim 10,000

Private clove plantations 15,000

—-—-—

Total $221,000

Deduct subsidy paid to Maskat 40,000

—-—-—

Balance $181,000

The income, thus sadly fallen off, was hardly enough for the necessaries

of the ruler, and left no margin available for improvements or public

works. At last the government, which by treaty is unjustly debarred from

imposing export or harbour dues, or even from increasing the import

duties, devised a modified system of land-tax, charging 5 per cent. per

annum on cloves, and 2 pice (= 3/4_d._) on mature cocoa-trees whose

estimated average value is $1. This, if levied, would produce about

$40,000 per annum.

Since that time prosperity has returned to the Island. The return of

imports by the Custom House rose from £245,981 in 1861-2 to £433,693 in

1867-8.[71] One half of the trade was in the hands of English subjects,

and the Committee remarks that Zanzibar is the chief market of the world

for ivory and copal; that the trade in hides, oils, seeds, and dyes is

on the increase, whilst cotton, sugar, and indigo, to which may be added

cocoa, loom in the distance.

-----

Footnote 66:

Recollections of Majunga, Zanzibar, Muscat, Aden, Mokha, Aden, and

other Eastern Ports. Salem: George Creamer, 1854.

Footnote 67:

It is hardly necessary to correct in these days the error of Carsten

Niebuhr, who made the ‘Belludges’ (Baloch) a tribe of Arabs. The

Baloch mercenaries will be found further noticed in Part II. chap. vi.

Footnote 68:

Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. p. 403. This author exposes,

without seeming to know that he was doing so, the selfish and short-

sighted policy of the H. E. I. Company which wanted a squadron

subsidiary to its own.

Footnote 69:

The consular report of 1860 gives an aggregate value of the port trade

at £1,667,577, viz.: imports £908,911, and exports (information

furnished by the mercantile community, and evidently much understated)

£758,666.

Footnote 70:

Commercial Reports, received at the Foreign Office from H. M.’s

Consuls, between July 1, 1863, and June 30, 1864. London, Harrison and

Co. In 1862 the revenue of Maskat was computed to reach the very

respectable cipher of £1,065,640 per annum.

Footnote 71:

Report of Select Committee appointed to inquire into the whole

question of the slave trade on the East coast of Africa.

CHAPTER VII.

A CHRONICLE OF ZANZIBAR.—THE CAREER OF THE LATE ‘IMAM,’ SAYYID SAID.

‘Mais, comme le livre n’est point une œuvre de fantaisie, comme il

traite de questions sérieuses, et qu’il s’addresse à des intérêts

durables, je me résigne, pour lui, à l’inattention du moment, et

j’attendrai patiemment pour que l’avenir lui ramène son heure, lui

refasse, pour ainsi dire, une nouvelle opportunité.’—M. GUILLAIN.

There is little of interest in the annals of Oman and of her colonies.

Fond of genealogy, the modern Arabs are perhaps the most incurious of

Orientals in the matter of history: they ignore the past, they disregard

the present, and they have a superstitious aversion to speak of the

future. Lawless and fanatical, treacherous, blood-thirsty and eternally

restless, the Omani races, whose hand is still against every man, have

converted their chronicles into a kind of Newgate Calendar, whilst the

multitude of personages that appear upon the scene, and the perpetual

rising and falling of Imams, princes, and grandees, offer to the reader

a mere string of proper names. Ample details concerning Maskat will be

found in the pages of Capt. Hamilton, Carsten Niebuhr, Wellsted, and

Salíl ibn Razík,[72] to mention no others. Zanzibar has ever been, since

historic times, connected with Oman, whose fortunes she has reflected;

the account of the distant dependency given by travellers is, therefore,

as might be expected, scanty and obscure.

At an early period the merchants and traders of Yemen frequented the

Island, and exchanged, as we read in the Periplus and Ptolemy, their

homes of barren rock and sand for the luxuriant wastes of Eastern

Africa. If tradition be credible, their primitive settlements were Patta

(Bette), Lamu, and the Mrima fronting these islets; and here to the

present day the dialect of their descendants has remained the purest.

Themselves pagans, they lived amongst the heathenry, borrowed their

language, as the Arabs and the Baloch still do, intermarried with them,

and begot the half-caste Wasawahili, or coast population. In proof that

these were the lords of the land, the late Sultan Ahmad, chief of the

Shirazi, or free tribe of the mulattoes, received annual presents from

the Arab Sayyid of Zanzibar. When the former died Muigni Mku, his wazir,

or brother—here all fellow-countrymen are brothers—succeeded, in default

of other heirs, to the position of monarch retired from business. He is

a common-looking negroid, who lives upon the proceeds of a plantation

and periodical presents: he is not permitted to appear as an equal at

the Sayyid’s Darbar, and it is highly improbable that he will ever come

to his own again.

The Sawáhil or Azania continued to acknowledge Arab and Persian

supremacy till the appearance of the Portuguese upon the coast. D. Vasco

da Gama passed Zanzibar Island without sighting it when first bound

Indiawards, and authors differ upon the subject of his return voyage.

The historian Toão de Barros (i. 4, 11) relates that the expedition made

its land-fall from India below Magadoxo (Makdishu or Maka’ad el Shaat,

‘the sitting-place of the sheep’),[73] beat off a boat attack from

‘Pató’ (Patta), visited Melinde, Mozambique, and the Aguada de S. Braz,

and doubled the Cape of Storms on March 20, 1499. Goes[74] declares that

da Gama, after touching at Makdishu and Melinde, arrived at Zanzibar on

February 28, and was supplied by its ruler with provisions, presents,

and specimens of country produce. The island is described as large and

fertile, with groves of fine trees, producing good fruit, two others,

‘Pomba’ (Pemba) and ‘Mofia’ (our Monfia and the Arab Mafiyah), lying in

its vicinity. These settlements were governed by Moorish princes ‘of the

same caste as the King of Melinde’—doubtless hereditary Moslem Shaykhs

and Sayyids. The population is represented as being in ‘no great force,

but carrying on a good trade with Mombassa for Guzerat calicoes and with

Sofala for gold.’ The ‘King of Melinde’ made a name in Europe. Rabelais

commemorates Hans Carvel, the King of Melinda’s jeweller, and (in Book

I. chap. v.) we read, ‘thus did Bacchus conquer Ind; thus philosophy,

Melinde,’—meaning that the Portuguese taught their African friends more

drinking than wisdom. João de Barros (ii. 4. 2) informs us that the

Chief of Zanzibar was ‘da linhagem dos Reys de Mombaça, nossos imigos.’

The inhabitants were ‘white Moors’ (Arabs from Arabia) and black Moors

or Wasawahili; the former are portrayed as a slight people, scantily

armed, but clothed in fine cottons bought at Mombasah from merchants of

Cambaya. Their women were adorned with jewels, with Sofalan gold, and

with silver obtained in exchange for provisions, from the people of St

Lawrence’s Island (Madagascar). And here we may remark that the Arab

settlements in East Africa, visited by the Portuguese at the end of the

15th century, showed generally a civilization and a refinement fully

equal to, if not higher than, the social state of the European voyagers.

The latter, expecting to find savages like the naked Kafirs of the

South, must not have been a little surprised to receive visits from the

chiefs of Mozambique and Melinde, men clad in gold, embroidered silks,

velvets, and ‘crimson damask, lined with green satin;’ armed with rich

daggers and swords sheathed in silver scabbards, seated on arm-chairs,

and attended by a suite of some 20 richly-dressed Arabs. The modest

presents offered by the Europeans to these wealthy princelets, whose

women adorned themselves with pearls and other precious stones, must

have given a mean idea of Portuguese civilization. And even in the

present day the dominions of the ‘barbarous Arab’ are superior in every

way to the miserable colonies on the West African coast, which represent

Christian and civilized Europe.

Four years afterwards (1503) Ruy Lourenço Ravasco, a Cavalleiro da Casa

d’ El Rey, sailing with D. Antonio de Saldanha, cruized off ‘Zemzibar,’

as his countrymen called Zanzibar, and in two months captured twenty

rich ships, laden with ambergris, ivory, tortoiseshell, wax, honey,

rice, coir, and silk and cotton stuffs. This captain appears, like most

of his fellows, to have been a manner of pirate: he did not restore them

till ransom was paid. ‘El Rey,’ still friendly to the Portuguese, sent a

spirited remonstrance, when the insolence of the reply forced him to

take hostile measures. The Arabs manned their canoes with some 4000 men;

but two launches, well-armed with cannon, killed at the first discharge

34 men and put the rest to flight. Thus the Malik or Regulus was

compelled by Ravasco to pay an annual tribute of 100 gold miskals in

token of submission to the greedy and unprincipled Dom Manuel. ‘The

conquered pays the conquest!’ exclaims with Christian emphasis the

venerable Osorio. Portugal now began to gather gold from Sofala to

Makdishu; ‘Wagerage,’ the chief of Melinde, contributed every year 1500

wedges (ingots) of the precious metal, and the insolence of the victors

must have made the good old man deeply regret the welcome and the

Godspeed which he had bestowed upon the exploratory expedition.

The Portuguese having wrested Kilwa and Mombasah from its Arab chiefs,

D. Duarte de Lemos, appointed (A.D. 1508) by the King Governor of the

‘Provinces of Æthiopia and Arabia,’ attacked successively Mafiyah,

Zanzibar, and Pemba, for failing in the paramount duty of paying

tribute. Mafiyah submitted, the people of Pemba escaped to Mombasah,

leaving nothing in their houses, and Zanzibar resisted, but the town was

taken and plundered. The Shaykh retired northwards, and his subjects

fled to the bush, ‘depois de bem esfarrapados na carne con a ponta da

lança, e espada dos nossos’—after being well pierced in the flesh by the

lance-points and the sword-blades of our men—says the chronicler. From

this time probably we may date the pointed arches that still remain upon

the Island, and the foundation of the fort, which is popularly

attributed to the ‘Faranj.’ Mombasah and Pemba were presently occupied

by the Portuguese; and the ruins of their extensive barracoons,

citadels, and churches still argue ancient splendour. In other places

upon the seaboard I found deep and carefully sunk wells, stone

enclosures, and coralline temples, whilst vestiges of European buildings

may be traced, it is said, contrary to popular opinion, many days’

journey inland.

We read little about Lusitanianized Zanzibar, where the insalubrity of

the climate must have defended the interior, and even parts of the

coast, from the spoiler. In _A.D._ 1519 the Moors massacred certain

shipwrecked sailors belonging to the expedition of D. Jorje de

Albuquerque. Three years afterwards the Shaykh, or, as he styled

himself, the Sultan[75] of Zanzibar, who, after submitting to Ravasco,

had acknowledged himself a vassal of D. Manuel, fitted out, with the aid

of the factors João de Mata and Pedro de Castro, a small expedition

against the Quirimba islandry, who had allied themselves with the

hostile tribes about Mombasah. The attack was successful, the chief town

was pillaged and burnt, and terror of the invader brought all the

neighbouring islets to terms. In 1528-9 the Viceroy of India, Nuno da

Cunha, being about to attack Mombasah, was supplied with provisions by

the Chief, and the Portuguese presently reduced the coast to a single

rule whose centres were successively Kilwa, Sofala, and Mozambique. East

Africa then became one of the four great governments depending upon the

vice-royalty of India; the three others being Malacca, Hormuz, and

Ceylon.

In this state Zanzibar remained till the close of the next century.

When, however, Pedro Barrato de Rezende, Secretary to the Viceroy, Count

of Linhares, wrote his ‘Breve Tratado’ on the Portuguese colonies of

India and East Africa (1635), the Island had ceased to be vassal and

tributary, but the Sultan remained friendly to Europeans. Many of the

latter occupied with their families rich plantations; Catholic worship

was protected, and there was a church in which officiated a brother of

the order of St Austin. There was the usual massacre of the Portuguese,

and expulsion of the survivors in imitation of Mombasah, about 1660; and

the Islanders, doubting their power to procure independence, applied for

assistance to the Arabs.

The reign of the Yu’rabi of Oman, a clan of the great Ghafiri tribe,

began as follows. The Imam, Sultan bin Sayf bin Malik el Yu’rabi, the

second of the family, having recovered Maskat (April 23, 1659), and

Matrah, created a navy which added Kang, Khishm, Hormuz, Bahrayn, and

Mombasah (1660) to the Arabian possessions left by his ancestors. After

investing Bombay this doughty chief died in A.D. 1668 or in 1669. His

son, Sayf bin Sultan, after defeating an elder brother, Belárab, became

the third Imam of the house of Yu’rabi, and summoned to submission the

petty chiefs on the eastern mainland of Africa. Between A.D. 1680 and

1698, the powerful squadron of the warlike Moor drove the Portuguese

from Zanzibar, Kilwa, Pemba, and Mombasah, where he established as

Governor Nasir bin Abdillah el Mazru’i, the first of the great family of

that name. He failed only at Mozambique. Arabs still relate the legend

how having closely invested the fort they were undermining the wall,

when a Banyan gave traitorous warning to the besieged. Pans of water

ranged upon the ground showed by the trembling fluid the direction of

the tunnel; a countermine was sprung with fatal effect, and the

assailants, retreating in confusion to their shipping, raised the

siege.[76] The squadron, however, pursued its course as far south as the

Comoros and Bukini (Madagascar, or rather the northern portion of the

Island), whence, hearing of the ruler’s death, it returned home. When

the Island became Arab property the Wasawahili fled to the ‘bush’: they

presently consented to render personal service, or to purchase exemption

by annually paying $2 per head.

Sayf bin Sultan was succeeded, in A.D. 1711, by his eldest son, Sultan

bin Sayf, who defeated with his fleet of 24 to 28 ships, carrying 80

guns, the soldiers of Abbas III. and of Nadir Shah. After his decease

the chieftainship of Oman was seized by a distant relative, Mohammed bin

Nasir, Lord of Jabrin, who according to some, first assumed, according

to others, resumed, the title of ‘Imam,’ making himself priest as well

as prince, like him of Sana’a in Yemen. It has ever been a Kháriji, and

especially a Bayází tenet, that any pious man, not only those belonging

to the Kuraysh or the Prophet’s tribe, might rise to the rank of

Pontiff. In A.D. 751 they were powerful enough to elect Julandah ben

Mas’úd, but the succeeding dynasty rejected the term. The usurped rule

was recovered after his decease (A.D. 1728) by Sayf el Asdi, a younger

son of Sultan bin Sayf: this indolent debauchee being shut up in Maskat

by a cousin, Sultan bin Murshid—some corrupt his father’s name to

Khurshid—applied for assistance to that Nadir Shah, whom his more

patriotic father had successfully resisted. In 1746 the Persians, aided

by intestine Arab divisions, soon conquered Oman: Sultan bin Murshid

slew himself in despair, and Sayf el Asdi, duped by his allies, died of

grief in his dungeon at Rustak. The latter city was in those days the

ordinary residence of the Imams; in fact, a kind of cathedral town as

well as capital.

The power now fell from the hands of the Yu’rabis (Ghafiris) into the

grasp of their rivals, the Bu Saidi (Hinawis). These ancient lords of

Oman claim direct descent from Kahtan (Joetan), great-grandfather of

Himyar, founder of the Southern Arabs, and brother to Saba, who built in

Yemen the city that bore his name: the stock is held to be noble as any

in the Peninsula. Oman remained under foreign dominion, paying tribute

to, and owning the rule of, Nadir Shah, till the Chief of Sohar, Said

bin Ahmad el Bu Saídí, struck the blow for freedom. Five years

afterwards (A.D. 1744) his son, Ahmad bin Saíd, artfully recovering

Maskat from Mirza Taky Khan, the Governor of Fars, who had revolted

against Nadir Shah, expelled the Persians from Oman. When laying the

foundation of the present dynasty he assumed the title of ‘Sayyid’

(temporal ruler); persuaded the Mufti to elect him ‘Imam’ (prince-

priest), and was confirmed in his dignities by the Sherif of Meccah.

Colonel Pelly (p. 184, Journal Royal Geographical Society, 1865) gives a

somewhat different account—‘It appears that the family of the Imams of

Muskat were originally Sayeds of a village, named Rowtheh, in the Sedair

immediately below the Towaij hills. The founder of the family was Saeed.

His son’s name was Ahmed. They came to Oman, and took service under the

dominant tribe called Yarebeh. Subsequently they obtained possession of

the strong hill-fort called Ilazm, in the neighbourhood of Rostak.

Eventually they became the rulers of Oman, and changed their sect from

that of Sunnee to Beyãthee.’ Ahmad allied himself with the ex-royal

Yu’rabis, by marrying a daughter of Sayf el Asdi. After crushing sundry

rebellions, he plundered Diu (A.D. 1760), and massacred the population,

a disaster from which the great port and fort never recovered. He then

sent an army of 12,000 men against the Ghafiri of Ra’as el Khaymah, who

had assisted the Persians to attack the Kawasim, and against the Nuaymi,

a powerful clan dwelling south of Sharjah on the Pirate Coast. His

success was complete; Khurfakan, Khasab, Ramsah, Ra’as el Khaymah,

Jezirat el Hamrah, Sharjah, and Fasht, all in turn submitted to him. In

A.D. 1785 he personally visited Mombasah, and by his lion-like demeanour

he secured its submission.

Dying shortly afterwards, Ahmad bin Said left the government to his son,

Said bin Ahmad, who was declared Imam, but was confined till the date of

his death, in 1802, to Rustak and its territory by his younger brother,

the ambitious and warlike Sultan bin Ahmad. This prince occupied the

islands of Khishm, Hormuz, and Bahrayn; he attempted to protect his

commerce from the pirates of Julfar and Ra’as el Khaymah, especially the

Kawasim, in our hooks called Jowasmee:[77] these Algerines of the East

had now become Wahhabis, and were hacked by all the influence of Saúd,

Lord of Daraiyyah. After vainly attempting to obtain aid from the Pasha

of Baghdad, Sultan bin Ahmad was attacked whilst sailing to Bandar Abbas

by five ships of the Kawasim, and was shot in the mêlée on Nov. 18,

1804.

This decease brought to power the late Sayyid Said,[78] the second son

born to Sayyid Sultan bin Ahmad in A.D. 1790. His maternal uncle, Sayyid

Bedr bin Sayf, and the Wahhabi Chief, Saúd, enabled him to defeat Sultan

Kays bin Ahmad of Sohar, another uncle who aimed at usurpation; but the

danger was shifted, not destroyed. At length, in A.D. 1806, Sayyid

Said’s aunt, the Bihi Mauza, daughter of the Imam Ahmad, and popularly

known as the Bint el Imam, determined that Sayyid Bedr must be slain at

a Darbar. Sayyid Said, a youth of 16, was unwilling, but the strong-

minded woman—in every noble Arab family there is at least one—prevailed,

and on July 31 the dangerous protector whilst descending the stairs, was

struck in the back by his nephew’s dagger. Sayyid Bedr sprang from the

window, and mounted a stirrupless horse which stood below, when he was

wounded with a spear; the ‘Imam’s daughter,’ with a blood-thirstiness

truly feminine, cheering on the assassins, till after riding half a mile

on the highway from Birkat to Sohar, he fell from his animal and was

speedily despatched. The young prince was, they say, so strongly

affected by the scene, that through life he could hardly be persuaded to

order a death.[79]

Thus Saíd became, with the consent of his elder brother, Sayyid Salim,

an independent ruler, and the fourth of his dynasty, the Bú Saídí. His

proper title was ‘Sayyid,’ which in Oman and amongst the Eastern Arabs

means a chief or temporal ruler, whereas ‘Sherif’ is a descendant of the

Prophet. Many Anglo-Indian writers ignore this distinction. ‘Imam’ is an

ecclesiastical title, signifying properly the man who takes the lead in

public prayer, and it demands both study and confirmation: in sectarian

theology it is the hereditary head of El Islam. The ‘Imam of

Mascat,’[80] therefore, never followed the practice of his predecessors.

His acclamation took place on Sept. 14, 1806. He was immediately

involved in troubles with Mombasah, Makdishu, and the unruly Arab

settlements of the East African Coast. His possessions in Oman also were

invaded and overrun by the Wahhabis, under Saúd who died in 1814, and

afterwards under his son Abdullah: these energetic Puritans converted,

by much fighting and more intrigue, several tribes to ‘Unitarianism’;

the land was at once fettered with a five per cent. Zakát (annual

tribute), of which Maskat paid 12,000 German crowns, and Sohar $8000.

Yet his valour and conduct gradually raised Sayyid Saíd to wealth and

importance, and the warlike operations of Mohammed Ali Pasha against the

Wahhabis gave him power to throw off the yoke. His personal gallantry in

the disastrous affair with the Benu Bú ’Ali (1820-21), won him the

praise of India, and the gift of a sword of honour from the Governor-

General. His tolerance, so unusual in Arabia, the patriarchal character

of his rule, and his love of progress, as shown by his concessions to

European and Hindu traders, and by a squadron of three frigates, four

corvettes, two sloops, seven brigs, and twenty armed merchant vessels,

entitled him to a place amongst civilized powers. With England he became

an especial favourite, after he had entered into the Palmerstonian views

upon the subject of slave exportation. He began by sacrificing, it is

said, 100,000 crowns annually, and he declined the various equivalents,

£2000 for three years, and other paltry sums offered in A.D. 1822, as a

compensation by Captain Moresby, R.N. His friendship with us, indeed,

cost him dear: more than once he threatened that if other concessions

were demanded by the unconscionable abolitionist he would escape the

incessant worry by abdicating and retiring to Meccah.

Sayyid Saíd first left Maskat for Zanzibar in 1828, and finally in 1832,

justly offended by our refusing to assist him, according to treaty,

against Sayyid Hamud bin Azran bin Kays, the rebel chief of Sohar. Our

policy on this occasion is generally supposed to have been prompted by

Captain, afterwards Colonel, Sam. Hennell, British Resident at Bushire.

This official, acting doubtless under orders, and living in constant

dread of ‘breaking the peace of the Gulf,’ preserved it by yielding

every point to every man; and the ignoble attitude which, amongst a

warlike race, provoked only contempt, laid the foundation of the last

Persian war. It was on a par with the orders which, under pain of

dismissal, bound the officers commanding the Honourable East India

Company’s cruisers in the Persian Gulf not to open fire upon a squadron

of pirates unless they began the cannonade; and which caused the capture

by boarding of more than one man-of-war.

Zanzibar had, since its conquest by Oman, been governed by an officer

appointed from Arabia. Sayyid Saíd found the town a line of cajan huts,

with the fort commanding the harbour, which served only for an

occasional pirate or slaver. Till A. D. 1822 some 15 or 16 Spaniards and

Portuguese ranged these seas, committing every kind of atrocity: they

were dangerous outside the port, and when at anchor they were guilty of

every crime; as many as three and four have been killed in a single

night, and a priest was kept for the purpose of shriving the stabbed and

burying the slain. These, however, were the days of large profits. The

share of one Arab merchant in a single adventure was worth $218,000—he

now (1857) begs his bread.

Sayyid Saíd at Once began to encourage foreign residents. With a

remarkable liberality he at once broke up the monopoly of trade which

the Wasawahili had preserved for eight centuries, including the 200

years when it was perpetuated by the avidity and the fanaticism of the

Portuguese. The United States, who being first in the market for ivory,

copal, and hides, had dispersed their cottons and hardwares throughout

Eastern Africa, concluded with him, in Sept. 1835, an advantageous

treaty, and established, about the end of 1837, a trading consulate at

his court. Four years afterwards (December, 1841) Lieut.-Colonel

Hamerton was directed to make Zanzibar his head-quarters as ‘H. B.

Majesty’s Consul, and H. E. I. Company’s Agent in the dominions of H. H.

the Imaum.’ Captain Romain Desfossés, the Mentor of the Prince de

Joinville, and commanding the naval division of Bourbon and Madagascar,

escorted by a squadron, signed a treaty on November, 1844. He was

accompanied by a consul without a chancellier, and the former at once

receiving his exequatur, began residence.

The Sayyid was unfortunate in sundry attempts to subjugate the Zanzibar

Coast: his conduct of war argued scant skill as a general, but he never

forfeited his well-earned favour for personal gallantry. With the true

Arab mania for territorial conquest, he eventually succeeded in flying

his flag at all the ports that belonged to the Yu’rabi Imams, and which

had descended, by the irregular right of succession, to his ancestor,

Ahmad bin Saíd the Hinawi. The Mazara’ (Mazrui) clan, alias the Arabo-

Mombasah princes, a turbulent and hot-tempered feudality, who, after the

massacre of the Portuguese, had been allowed, by Sayf bin Sultan, to

retain the city on condition of sending occasional presents and of doing

certain baronial services, refused (A.D. 1822) allegiance to the Ayyal

Bú Saíd. Captain Vidal, R.N., finding this important place threatened by

Zanzibar, accepted an application from the citizens, who had hoisted the

British flag; advised that they should be received as protégés, and

persuaded the claimant to withdraw. The Sayyid remonstrated against

these measures with the Bombay Government; and the ministers of the

Crown to whom the question was referred, eventually removed our

establishment.

Sayyid Saíd, early in 1828, sailed with a squadron carrying 1200 men, to

attack the town, but after taking and garrisoning the fort, he was

compelled to make Zanzibar, and eventually Maskat. The retreat was in

consequence of the troubles excited by Saúd bin Ali bin Sayf, the nephew

of Sayyid Bedr, supported by the sister of Sayyid Hilal, chief of

Suwayk, who had been treacherously imprisoned. He was enabled, by the

aid of Isá bin Tarif and his dependents, to invest, with a squadron

carrying a force of 4000 to 5000 men, about the end of December, 1829,

Mombasah Fort, from which his garrison had been repulsed. The Mazru’is,

numbering a total of some 1500, gallantly held their ground: the

Sayyid’s soldiers, suffering severely from fever, refused to fight:

briefly two campaigns had little effect upon the besieged, and the

Sayyid was obliged to accept the semblance of submission, in order to

return triumphant to Zanzibar. After visiting Maskat, and putting down

Hamud bin Azran, who had taken Rustak, and was threatening the capital,

he broke the treaty with Mombasah, and blockaded it throughout the N.

East monsoon from November, 1831, to April, 1832. During the next year

he attacked the place for the third time; but, after a week’s campaign,

he returned once more with Oriental triumph to Zanzibar in February,

1833. Then treachery was called in to do the perfect work. Ráshid bin

Salim bin Ahmad, the Mazru’i Wali or governor, and twenty-six of his

kinsmen, enticed by the most solemn oaths, which were accompanied by a

sealed Koran—it is wonderful how liar trusts liar!—embarked on one of

the Sayyid’s ships, which carried his son Sayyid Khalid and Sulayman bin

Ahmad. The vessel instantly weighed anchor, stood for Zanzibar, and

consigned its cargo to life-long banishment and prison, at Mina and

Bandar Abbas. The Mazara’ at once sank into utter obscurity.

Sayyid Saíd was persuaded (Jan. 6, 1843) to attack that notorious

plunderer, Bana M’takha, chief of Sewi, a small territory near Lamu, who

had persuaded one Mfumo Bakkari, and afterwards his brother Mohammed bin

Shaykh, to declare himself Lord of Patta, and independent of the Arab

prince. The ruler of Zanzibar here failed to repeat his success at

Mombasah, the wily African shutting his ear to the charmer’s voice. The

second son, Sayyid Khalid, then disembarked his 1200 to 1300 troops,

Maskatis and Wasawahili, ‘cowardly as Maskatis,’ who with the Súri are

the proverbial dastards of the race. He served out with Semitic economy

five cartridges per head, and he marched them inland without a day’s

rest, after a ‘buggalow’-voyage from Arabia. Short of ammunition, and

worn out by fatigue, they soon yielded to the violent onslaught of the

enemy. The Wágunya, or as some write the word Bajúní, warriors,

described to be a fierce race of savages, descended from the Wasawahili,

the Somal, and the Arab colonists, charged in firm line, brandishing

spear-heads like those of the Wamasai, a cubit long, and shouting as

they waved their standards, wooden hoops hung round with the dried and

stuffed spoils of men.[81] The Arabs fled with such precipitation, that

some 300 were drowned, an indiscriminate massacre and mutilation took

place, the ‘England’ and the ‘Prince of Wales’ opened an effectual fire

upon their own boats and friends; the guns which had been landed were

all captured, and the Sayyid Khalid saved himself only by the speed of

his horse. The operation was repeated with equal unsuccess next year,

Sayyid Said himself embarking on board the ‘Victoria:’ the general,

Hammad bin Ahmad, fell into an ambuscade, and again the artillery was

lost. After a blockade of the Coast, which lasted till the end of 1866,

the Kazi of Zanzibar, Muhiyy el Din of Lamu, landing upon his native

island, talked over the insurgents. Bana M’takha afterwards sent back

the Arab cannon, saying that he could not afford to keep weapons which

ate such vast meals of powder, and acknowledged for a consideration the

supremacy of Zanzibar, retaining his power, and promising but never

intending to pay an annual tribute of $5000. Hence the Baloch

mercenaries speak of their late employer as a king who bought and sold,

and who was more distinguished for the arts of peace than for the nice

conduct of war. Even his own subjects complained on this occasion of his

folly in commencing, and of his want of energy in carrying on, the

campaign.

The Sayyid’s matrimonial engagements were numerous. In 1827 he married

the daughter of the Farmán-farmá (Governor) of Fars, and a grand-

daughter of Fath ’Ali Shah, under an agreement in the marriage contract

that the bride might spend every summer with her own family at Bandar

Abbas or Shiraz. Disgusted with Arab homeliness, and with six years of

monotonously hot life at Maskat, she obtained leave, and once in a place

of safety she wrote back a strong epistle. It began, ‘Yá Dayyus! yá

Mal’ún’, alluding to the report that Sayyid Khalid had violated the

harem of his father, as the latter was also said to have done in his

younger days. The Arab prince had lowered himself in the eyes of his

subjects by representing himself to be a Shiah. She called him a dog-

Sunni, and upon this ground she demanded instant divorce. The Sayyid

despatched two confidential elders with orders to represent that his

spouse could not legally claim such indulgence: a singular bastinado

upon the soles of their feet soon made the venerable learned discover

that divine right was upon the lady’s side. Her next exploit was to

bowstring, in jealousy, a Katirchi (muleteer) with whom she had

intrigued; and, driven from Shiraz by the fame of this exploit, she died

at Kazimayn, in child-bed, her lover being this time a Hammamchi, or

bath-servant.

In A.D. 1833, four years after the death of Radama I., the Sayyid formed

matrimonial designs upon the person of Ranavola Manjaka, Queen of the

Hovas, and a personage somewhat more redoubtable than our good Queen

Bess. Amongst his envoys on this occasion was one Khamisi wa Tání, who,

under the Arabized name Khamis bin Osman, presently played some notable

tricks upon the credulous ‘comparative geographer,’ Mr W. D. Cooley. The

envoys were kept upon the frontier till the ‘Tangi-man’ arrived,

bringing the Tangina. This nut, scraped in water, is administered as an

ordeal, like the bitter water of the ancient Israelites and the poison

nut of modern Calabar. The patient is ordered to walk about; after some

20 minutes he feels atrocious bowel-pains, prolapsus takes place, and he

dies; if wealthy enough to pay the priest, another kind of nut is at

once administered, and it may cure by emesis. As soon as this potion,

which always destroys traitors with frightful torments, in fact, with

the worst symptoms of Asiatic cholera, was proposed to the ambassadors,

in order to prove the purity of their intentions, and their affection

for the royal family, all fled precipitately, as may be imagined, from

the ‘Great Britain’ of Africa. Sayyid Said was also unlucky in the

choice of another Persian bride, the daughter of Irich Mirza, a

supposititious son of Mohammed Shah, and hardly a second-class noble.

She came to Zanzibar in A.D. 1849, accompanied by a train of attendants,

including her Farráshas (carpet-spreaders), her Jilaudár (groom), and

her private Jellád (executioner). She astonished the Arabs by her free

use of the dagger, whilst her intense relish of seeing her people ride

men down in the bazar, and of superintending bastinadoes administered

with Persian apparatus, made the Banyans crouch in their shops with

veiled faces, and the Arabs thank Allah that their women were not like

those of the A’ajám. In a short time the lady made herself so

disagreeable, that her husband sent her back divorced to her own

country.

The Sayyid kept a company of 60 or 70 concubines, and he always avoided

those that bore him children. Though a man of strong frame and vigorous

constitution, he exhausted his powers by excesses in the harem, he

suffered from Sarcocele (sinistral) during later life, and an alarming

emaciation argued consumption. The heat of Maskat, which he last visited

when hostilities between England and Persia were reported, brought him

to his grave. In October, 1856, he died at sea off the Seychelles

Islands, on board his own frigate, the ‘Victoria.’ Aged 67, the ‘Second

Omar,’ as his subjects were fond of calling him before his face, seems

to have had a presentiment of death; before embarking he prepared,

contrary to Arab custom, a ‘Sandúk el Mayyit,’ or coffin, and when dying

he gave orders that his remains should be thrown overboard. The corpse,

however, was carried to Zanzibar and interred in the city.

Sayyid Said was probably as shrewd, liberal, and enlightened a prince as

Arabia ever produced, yet Europe overrated his powers. Like Orientals

generally, he was ever surrounded by an odious entourage, whom he

consulted, trusted, and apparently preferred to his friends and well-

wishers. He firmly believed in the African Fetish and in the Arab

Sahir’s power of metamorphosis;[82] he would never flog a Mganga

(medicine-man), nor cut down a ‘devil’s tree.’ He sent for a Shaykh

whose characts were famous, and with a silver nail he attached the paper

to the doorway of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s sick-room, thereby excluding

evil spirits and the ghost of Mr Napier, who had died at the Consulate.

He refused to sit for his portrait—even Colonel Smyth’s History of

Knight-errantry and Chivalrous Characters failed to tempt him, for the

European peasants’ reason,—it would take away part of his life. When

‘chivalry’ was explained to him, he pithily remarked that only the

‘Siflah’ (low fellows) interfere between man and wife, master and man.

His pet axiom—a fair test of mental bias—was ‘Mullahs, women, and horses

never can be called good till death,’ in this resembling Pulci—

Cascan le rose, e restan poi le spine;

Non giudicate nulla innanzi al fine.

The Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord sent him their diploma: he

declared that he would not belong to a body of grave-robbers and corpse-

snatchers. The census of Zanzibar having been proposed to him, unlike

King David, he took refuge with Allah from the sin of numbering his

people. When tide-gauges were supplied by the Geographical Society of

Bombay, he observed that the Creator had bidden the ocean to ebb and to

flow—‘what else did man want to know about it?’ Such was his incapacity

for understanding European affairs, that until death’s-day he believed

Louis Philippe to have carried into exile, as he himself would have

done, all the fleet and the public treasure of the realm. And he never

could comprehend a Republic—‘who administers the stick?’

Of this enterprising man, the Mohammed Ali Pasha of the further East, I

may say, Extinctus amabitur idem. Shrewd and sensible, highly religious

though untainted by fanaticism; affable and courteous, he was as

dignified in sentiments as distinguished in presence and demeanour. He

is accused of grasping covetousness and treachery—but what Arab ruler is

not covetous and treacherous? He was a prince after the heart of his

subjects; prouder of his lineage than fond of ostentation or display, an

amateur conqueror on a small scale, mild in punishment, and principally

remarkable as the chief merchant, cultivator, and ship-builder in his

dominions. An epitaph may be borrowed for him from a man of very

different character—first in war, first in peace, and first in the

hearts of his fellow-countrymen. Peace be to his manes!

Sayyid Said’s territory at the time of his death extended in Oman from

the Ra’as el Jebel (Cape Musseldom) to Sohar. In Mekran the seaboard

between Ra’as Jask and Guadel belonged to him: in the Persian Gulf he

had Khishm, Larak, and Hormuz, and he farmed from the Shah, Bandar Abbas

and its dependency, Mina. His African possessions were far the most

extensive and important. He ruled, to speak roughly, the whole Eastern

Coast from N. lat. 5°, and even from Cape Guardafui, where the maritime

Somal were to a certain extent his dependents, to Cape Delgado (S. lat.

11°), where the Arab met the Portuguese rule—an extent of 16° = 960

geographical miles. The small republics of Makdishu (Magadoxo, in N.

lat. 2° 1′ 4″), of Brava (N. lat. 1° 6′ 48″), of Patta or Bette (S. lat.

2° 9′ 12″), and of Lamu (S. lat. 2° 15′ 42″), owned his protectorate,

and in April, 1865, Marka received from him a garrison. The whole

Zanzibarian Archipelago was his, and he claimed Bahrayn, Zayla, Aden,

and Berberah, the first-mentioned with, the last three without, a shadow

of right. His Arab subjects declared that they, and not the Portuguese,

ceded Bombay to the British: the foundation of the story is a mosque

built in ancient times by the Omanis, somewhat near the present Boree

Bandar.

Sayyid Said left a single widow, the lady Azzá bint Musa, of the Bú

Kharibán, a grand-daughter of the Imam Ahmad, and consequently a cousin.

She is now (1857) in years, but her ancient lineage and her noble

manners retain for her the public respect. She had but one child, which

died young: all the male issue of the Prince are by slave-girls, a

degradation in the eyes of free-born Omani Arabs. As usual amongst the

wealthy and noble of the polygamous East, the daughters are the more

numerous,[83] and many are old maids, the pride of birth not allowing

them, like the Sherifehs of the Hejaz, to wed with any but equals. The

eldest of the fourteen sons, Sayyid Hilal, who, in 1845, had visited

England, it is said, after an escapade, died at Aden en route to Meccah

in 1851. He was followed, after an interval of a few months, by his next

brother, Sayyid Khalid, called the Banyan. The eldest surviving heir

(Sayyid Suwayni), the son of a Georgian or Circassian slave, born about

1822, became by his father’s will, successor to and lord of the northern

provinces. To Sayyid Majid, the fourth son, now (1857) aged 22, a prince

of mild disposition and amiable manners, contrasting strongly with the

vigorous ruffianism of his elder brother, was left the Government of

Zanzibar and of the East African Coast. There is, as usual amongst

Arabs, a turbulent tribe of cousins: of these the most influential is

Sayyid Mohammed, a son of Sayyid Salim bin Sultan, younger brother to

the late Prince, who some years ago died of consumption. Hitherto he has

used his powers loyally—ruling, but not openly ruling. Sayyid Said’s

valuable property, including his plantations, was sold, as his will

directed, and the money was divided according to a fixed scale, even the

youngest princes claiming shares. No better inducement to permanent

dissension could have been devised. But Eastern monarchs apparently

desire that their dynasties should die with them. Fath Ali Shah of

Persia, when asked upon his death-bed to name a successor, drew a sword

and showed what made and unmade monarchs: scarcely had the breath left

his body than the chamber was dyed with the blood of his sons, each

hastening to stab some hated rival brother.

These lines were penned in 1857. Since 1859 the hapless and turbulent

family has been in a state of fratricidal strife, and the province of

Oman has reverted to its normal state of intrigue, treachery, and

assassination. Sayyid Suwayni, a negligent and wasteful though not an

unpopular man, to whom the English were especially obnoxious, threatened

in 1859 an attack upon Sayyid Majid, and was prevented by British

cruisers; in due time he was murdered by his son, Sayyid Salim, who

usurped the Government. This Sayyid Salim was dethroned by his uncle,

Sayyid Turki, who surprised Maskat, and made himself master of the

situation. The European would imagine that the stakes were hardly worth

such reckless play: Arabs, however, judge otherwise.

-----

Footnote 72:

History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman, from A.D. 661 to 1856, by

Salil ibn Razík. Translated, &c., by the Rev. G. P. Badger. Printed

for the Hakluyt Society.

Footnote 73:

So called from some silly vision of an illuminated sheep appearing to

one of the Shaykhs. The city is supposed to have been founded in A.D.

295, about 70 years before Kilwa.

Footnote 74:

The three voyages of Vasco da Gama, &c., as from the Lendas da India

of Gaspar Correa, translated by the Hon. Henry C. J. Stanley, London,

Hakluyt Society, 1869, chap. xxi., note to page 261. M. Guillain (i.

319) makes the expedition reach Zanzibar on April 29, 1499.

Footnote 75:

The only Shaykhs who took the name of Sultan were those of Kilwa and

Zanzibar: he of Mombasah was tributary to the latter.

Footnote 76:

M. Guillain (i. 522) had vaguely heard of this tradition.

Footnote 77:

The Western as well as the Eastern Arabs turn the hard Káf into a Jím,

e. g. Jibleh for Kibleh. The Kawásim derive their name from a local

Wali, or Santon, the Shaykh Kásim.

Footnote 78:

A detailed account of this Prince’s early life is given in the

‘History of Syed Said, Sultan of Muscat’ ... translated from the

Italian. London, 1819 (written by his physician, Shaykh Mansur, alias

Vincenzo). Buckingham, Fraser, and Sir John Malcolm have also supplied

notices of his eventful career.

Footnote 79:

I give this account as it was told to me by Lieut.-Col. Hamerton. M.

Guillain (part II. chap. iii.) may be consulted for another and a more

diplomatic version.

Footnote 80:

I cannot but express my astonishment to see a geographer like Ritter,

and a veteran from the East like Colonel Sykes (loco cit.), confound

‘Imam’ with ‘Imaun’ (Imán), which signifies faith or creed.

Footnote 81:

The trophies are drawn out with a lanyard, and cut off when the

patient is still alive—after death they are not so much valued;

finally they are dried so as to resemble isinglass.

Footnote 82:

I have alluded to this subject in my exploration of Harar (chap. ii.),

and a few more details may not be uninteresting. Strong-headed Pliny

(viii. 32) believes metamorphosis to be a ‘fabulous opinion,’ and

remarks, ‘there is no falsehood, however impudent, that wants its

testimony among them’ (the Greeks), yet at Tusdrita he saw L.

Coisilius, who had been changed from a woman into a man. Curious to

say, the learned Anatomist of Melancholy (Part I. sect. 1) charges him

with believing in the versipellis, and explains the belief by

lycanthropy, cucubuth or Lupina Insania. Petronius gives an account of

the ‘fact.’ Pomponius Mela accuses the Druidesses of assuming bestial

shapes. Suidas mentions a city where men changed their forms. Simon

Magus could produce a double of himself. Saxo Grammaticus declared

that the priests of Odin took various appearances. John of Salisbury

asserts that Mercury taught mankind the damnable art of fascinating

the eyes. Joseph Acosta instances fellow-country men in the West

Indies who were shot during transformation. Our ancestry had their

were-wolf (homo-lupus), and the Britons their Bisclavaret. Coffin, the

Abyssinian traveller, all but saw his Buda change himself into a

hyena. Mr Mansfield Parkyns heard of a human horse. In Shoa and Bornou

men become leopards; in Persia, bears; in Somali-land Cyn-hyenas; in

West African Kru-land elephants and sharks; in Namaqua-land, according

to the late Mr Andersson, lions. At Maskat transformation is fearfully

frequent; and illiterate Shiahs believe the good Caliph Abubekr, whom

they call Pir i Kaftar (old hyena), to be trotting about the deserts

of Oman in the semblance of a she-hyena, pursued by many amorous

males. At Bushire the strange tale of Haji Ismail, popularly called

‘Shuturi,’ the ‘Camel’d,’ is believed by every one, and was attested

with oaths by his friends and relations: this respectable merchant

whilst engaged in pilgrimage was transformed by an Arab into a she-

camel, and became the mother of several foals, till restored to human

shape by another enchanter. Even in Europe, after an age of

scepticism, the old natural superstition is returning, despite the

pitch-fork, under another shape. The learned authoress of the Night-

side of Nature objects to ‘illusionists,’ argues lycanthropy to be the

effect of magico-magnetic influence, and instances certain hysterical

and nervous phenomena of eyes paralyzed by their own weakness.

For many years I have carefully sifted every case reported to me in

Asia and Africa, and I have come to the conclusion with which most men

commence. No amount of evidence can justify belief in impossibilities,

in bonâ fide miracles. Moreover, such evidence mostly comes from the

duper and the dupe. Finally, all objective marvels diminish in inverse

ratio to the increase of knowledge, whilst preternaturalisms and

supernaturalisms gradually dwindle down to the natural badly

understood.

Of course this disclaimer of belief in the vulgar miracle does not

imply that human nature has no mysterious powers which, if highly

developed and displayed in a dark age, would be treated as a miracle

or as an act of magic. It has lately been proved that the will

exercises positive and measurable force upon inert matter; such

‘glimpses of natural actions, not yet reduced to law,’—as Mr Faraday

said—open up a wonderful vista in the days to come.

Footnote 83:

In the Journal of Anthropology (No. ii. Oct. 1870, Art. ix.), James

Campbell, Surgeon, R.N., produces a paper upon ‘Polygamy; its

influence on Sex and Population,’ showing, by 17 cases drawn from

Siam, exceptions to the common theory that in the patriarchal family

more female than male children are born. But the evidence is too

superficial to shake the belief of men who have passed their lives in

polygamous countries; moreover, in the families cited the male-

producing powers may either have been unusual, or they may have been

peculiarly stimulated.

CHAPTER VIII.

ETHNOLOGY OF ZANZIBAR. THE FOREIGN RESIDENTS.

‘Quiconque ne voit guère

N’a guère à dire aussi. Mon voyage depeint

Vous sera d’un plaisir extrême.

Je dirai; j’étais là; telle chose m’avint,

Vous y croirez être vous-même.’—_La Fontaine._

The 300,000 souls[84] now (1857-9) composing the residents on, and the

population of, the Zanzibar Island, are a heterogeneous body. The former

consist of Americans and Europeans, about 14,000 Banyans (including

those of the Coast), a few Parsees and Portuguese from Goa, and sundry

castes of Hindustani Moslems, Khojahs, Mehmans, and Borahs, numbering

some 1200. There are also trifling numbers of free blacks from the

Comoro Islands, Madagascar, Unyamwezi, and the Somali country. To this

accidental division I will devote the present chapter.

The Consular corps is represented by three members, who, as usual in

these remote Oriental spots, assume, and are allowed to assume, the

position of plenipos. The first American official was Mr Richard Palmer,

who was succeeded by sundry acting men: the second was Mr Waters, who

left in 1844: then came Mr C. Ward, Mr Webb, and Mr Macmullan. Captain

Mansfield now (1859) holding office, is agent to Messrs John Bertram and

Co. of Salem. This gentleman, who took a great interest in the East

African Expedition, has had a more extensive experience of the East than

his predecessors; he has also the advantage of being respectable and

respected.

On the part of the French Government the first Consul was M. Broquant:

he died of fever and dysentery at Zanzibar, and was succeeded by M. de

Beligny, a French Creole from Santo Domingo, afterwards transferred to

Manilla and to Charleston, South Carolina. M. Vignard, a young man of

amiable manners, and distinguished in Algeria as an Arabic scholar, fell

victim to a sunstroke when voyaging from Aden, where I met him en route

for his post. The present Consul is M. Ladislas Cochet: the Chancellier

and Dragoman is M. Jablonski, Pole and poet.

Lieut.-Colonel Atkins Hamerton is, and has been, I have said, H. B.

Majesty’s Consul, and H. E. I. Company’s Agent at the Court of H. H.

Sayyid Said, since December, 1841, when we first established relations

with Zanzibar. Attached to his establishment is a passed apothecary, an

Eurasian, the only attempt at a medico on the Island. Lieut.-Colonel

Hamerton had been on terms of intimacy with Sayyid Said during a quarter

of a century; and their friendship, as happens, began with a ‘little

aversion.’ The Britisher proposed to travel in the interior from Maskat,

in those days a favourite exploration with the more adventurous; and the

Arab, suspicious as all Arabs, thinking it safest to put the intruder

out of the way, imprudently wrote a letter to that effect. This missive

fell into the hands of the person whom it most concerned: he boldly

carried it to the Prince, and reproached him in no measured terms with

his perfidy. Sayyid Said found himself overmatched, submitted to Kismat,

and, admiring the traveller’s spirit and openness, determined to win his

attachment. The two became firm friends; the Consul was the influential

adviser of the ruler, and the latter intrusted him with secrets

jealously hidden from his own. The reason why the trade of Zanzibar was

surprisingly developed under the primitive rule of an Arab Prince is not

only the immense wealth of Eastern Africa, it results mainly from the

wise measures of a man who for the greater part of his life devoted

himself to the task. It was an unworthy feeling which made M. Guillain

write of my late friend (ii. 23), ‘Bref, sa réputation est de placer

fort bien, et à beaux bénéfices, l’argent que lui donnent la reine et le

gouvernment de la compagnie’—his generosity to his family left little

after his decease. Not the least of Sayyid Said’s anxieties upon his

death-bed was to reach Zanzibar alive, and even when half-unconscious he

continually called for Colonel Hamerton. It is suspected that he wished

to communicate the place of his concealed treasures, which, despite the

most careful search, were never found. When hiding their hoards it is

not unusual for Arabs to put to death the slaves who assist in the

labour, and thus to prevent negro indiscretion. The family, I may here

say, firmly believes that Colonel Hamerton knows where the hoards lay,

and yet refuses to divulge the secret.

It will not be easy properly to fill this appointment. Without taking

into consideration the climate, it is evident that few Englishmen are

prepared to settle for long years at remote Zanzibar, and Arabs do not

care to trust new men. Yet it would be the acme of short-sightedness to

neglect this part of East Africa. Our Anglo-Indian subjects, numbering

about 4000[85] in the dominions of Zanzibar, some of them wealthy men,

are entitled to protection from the Arab, and more especially from the

Christian merchants. Almost the whole foreign trade, or at least four-

fifths of it, passes through their hands; they are the principal

shopkeepers and artisans, and they extend as far South as Mozambique,

Madagascar, and the Comoro Islands. During the last few years the number

of Indian settlers has greatly increased, and they have obtained

possession from the Arabs, by purchase or mortgage, of many landed

estates in the Sayyid’s dominions. The country can look forward only to

a moderate development whilst it continue in the present hands, but the

capabilities of the coast are great. Labour only is wanted; and a

European power establishing itself upon the mainland—this object has

frequently been proposed, and is steadily kept in view—could in a few

years command a territory and a commerce which would rival Western

India.

The other white residents are commercial, and it is with no little

astonishment that the Englishman finds no direct trade with Great

Britain, and meets none of his fellow-countrymen at Zanzibar.[86] Their

absence results not from want of venture or dearth of business, but from

supineness on the part of the authorities. No merchant can profitably

settle where he cannot freely correspond, receive advices that ships

have been despatched, and obtain orders for cargoes and consignments.

Moreover, large sums have been wasted by respectable houses in settling

here trustworthy agents and sober men. The few favourable exceptions

found the climate either unendurable or fatal. Hitherto, however,

Englishmen have done little, and, I write it unwillingly, Englishwomen

have done less, for the honour of the national name at Zanzibar than in

most parts of the East. Two girls came out to the Island, married to the

usual ‘black princes,’ who mostly turn out to be barbers or domestic

servants; this proceeding greatly scandalized the white residents, and

the Desdemonas gave more trouble to the officials than the whole colony.

The principal American houses are those of Messrs Bertram & Co.,

represented by Captain Mansfield, Mr Ropes, and Mr Webb: Messrs Rufus

Green & Co., also of Salem, have three agents, Messrs Winn, Spalding,

and Wilkins. Lastly, there is Mr Samuel Masury, of Salem, a ‘general

merchant,’ distinguished for probity and commercial sagacity: he left

Zanzibar during our exploration of the interior, and he presently came

to an untimely end.

The French houses began with a misconception, a certain chancellier

having reported officially to his Government, that 232 ships annually

visited and loaded at Zanzibar. The intelligence caused considerable

excitement: it was believed that every vessel left these shores crammed

with copal, ivory, and gold dust, and the French merchants resolved by

concurrence to drive the Americans out of the field. Messrs Vidal frères

of Marseille despatched accordingly to Zanzibar Messrs Bauzan,

Wellesley, and Peronnet, and appointed M. Mass their second agent at

Lamu. They were opposed by Messrs Rabaud frères, also of Marseilles, a

house from whom we received especial kindness: their Zanzibar manager

was M. Hannibal Bérard, and M. Terassin was sent to the ‘bone of

contention,’ Lamu. These firms choose their employés amongst their

captains, who act supercargoes as well as commanders; they are estimable

men, sober and skilful, but painfully lax in dealing with ‘les nègres.’

Their Consul publicly declared that it was his duty to curb the

merchants, as well as to protect the commerce of France.

The specialty of the French houses is oil. They export the cocoa-nut in

various forms, sesamum and other oleaginous grains, which Provence

converts with such energy and success into huile d’olives. The sesamum

is a comparatively new article of commerce, yet the Periplus (chap.

xiv.) numbers Elæon Sesáminon (oil of sesamum) amongst the imports from

India. Now it is supplied chiefly by Lamu. Vast quantities could be

grown there, but the natives, though large advances have been offered to

them, will not extend their cultivation for fear of lowering the price,

which has lately doubled. French ships now visit the West Coast of India

as far North as Kurrachee, in search of sesamum, and last year (1856) 27

vessels took cargo from Bombay.

At length the Marseille houses found out that Zanzibar is overstocked

with buyers; that demand in these regions does not readily, at least,

create supply; that it is far easier to dispose of than to collect a

cargo; that the African man will not work as long as he can remain idle,

and that sure profits are commanded only by the Banyan system; briefly,

the two French houses are eating up each other. The Messrs Vidal are

named for a loss of $400,000, which it will be impossible to recoup. It

is also reported that too sanguine M. le Chancellier was threatened with

a procès-verbal; of his 232 ships 70 were whalers, many names had been

twice registered, and only 32 (232 minus 200) took in cargo.

The houses from Hamburg, that ‘Carthage of the Northern Seas,’ conclude

the list of Europeans. The brothers Horn and M. Quas, agents for Messrs

Herz and Co., are the most successful copal cleaners; they find it more

economical to keep a European cooper than to depend upon the bazar.

Messrs William and Albert Oswald, British protégés, represent their

father; they are assisted by M. Witt, an intelligent young man, who

having graduated in Californian gold-fields, proposes to prospect the

Coast. M. Koll acts for Messrs Hansing and Co., and, lastly, M. Reich,

lately returned to the Island, is the representative of Messrs Müller

and Co.

Europeans are, as a rule, courteously treated by the upper classes, and

civilly by the Arabs at Zanzibar; this, however, is not always the case

on the Coast. They are allowed to fly flags; every merchant has his

staff upon his roof, and there is a display of bunting motley as in the

Brazil. Even a Cutch boat will carry the Sayyid’s plain red colours,

with the Union Jack in the corner, and the Turkish crescent and star in

the centre.

Composed of patch-work material, the Europeans do not unite, and their

disputes, especially between compatriots, are exasperated by commercial

rivalries, which have led to serious violations of faith. All is

wearisome monotony: there is no society, no pleasure, no excitement;

sporting is forbidden by the treacherous climate, and, as in West Africa

and the Brazil, strangers soon lose the habit of riding and walking.

Moreover, the merchants, instead of establishing the business hours of

Bombay, make themselves at home to their work throughout the day; this

is the custom of the Bonny River, where supercargoes are treated like

shopkeepers by the negroes. European women, I repeat, seldom survive the

isolation and the solitary confinement to which not only the place but

also the foul customs of the people condemn them.

The necessaries of life at Zanzibar are plentiful, if not good. Bread of

imported wheat is usually ‘cooked’ in the house, and the yeast of sour

toddy renders it nauseous and unwholesome. There have been two bakers

upon the Island: one served at the Consulate, the other, a Persian, was

in the employment of the Prince. Meat is poor; a good preserved article

would here make cent. per cent. Poultry is abundant, tasteless and

unnutritious; fish is also common, but it is hardly eatable, except at

certain seasons. Cows’ milk is generally to be had, but the butter is

white, and resembles grease; fruit must be bought at the different

bazars early in the morning. All such articles as tea, wine, and

spirits, cigars, tobacco, and sweetmeats, are imported from America or

from Europe,—the town supplies nothing so civilized. Retail dealing is

wanted, and the nearest approach to a shop is the store of a Khojah, who

will buy and sell everything, from a bead to a bale of cloth.

All articles but money are expensive at Zanzibar, where the dollar

represents our shilling.[87] This is the result of the large sums

accumulated by trade and of the necessity of importing provisions; we

see the same process at work throughout the tropical Brazil. Moreover,

in all semi-barbarous lands a stranger living like a native, may live

upon ‘half-nothing;’ if he would, however, preserve the comforts of

home, and especially if he would see society, he must consent to an

immoderate expenditure. Finally, where the extremes of wealth and

poverty meet, and where semi-civilization has not discovered that

prudence is a virtue and improvidence a blunder, the more man spends the

more he is honoured.

The humblest dwelling at Zanzibar lets unfurnished for £80 to £100 per

annum. Furniture of all kinds, porcelain, china, plate, and linen, no

matter how old, fetch more than prime cost, and $1 will be paid for a

patched and rickety chair worth in London a shilling. Clothing must be

brought from Europe: broad cloth is soon spoiled by sun and damp, and

shoes must not be exposed to the air—it is well to have the latter one

or two sizes larger than at home. The luxuries of life are of course

enormously dear, when they are to be purchased. During the Sayyid’s

absence the women of his harem have, through the eunuchs, sold for a

song the valuable presents sent from Europe; and after the return of the

royal vessels from Bourbon and the Mauritius, watches and chronometers,

sextants and spy-glasses, have been exceedingly cheap. In both cases the

stranger-purchaser would have done well to remember that he was buying

stolen goods.

Another cause of expense at Zanzibar is the present state of the

currency. The rouble of Russia is the franc of France, and here the

standard of value is the Maria Theresa or German crown, averaging 4_s._

2_d._ Bearing the die of 1780, and still coined at the mint of Vienna

for the Arab and the E. African trade, it is perferred by the people

simply because they know it. The popular names are Riyál (i.e. real,

royal) or Girsh (groschen, ‘broad’ pieces). Spanish dollars (bú tákeh,

‘father of window,’ whence our ‘patak’), elsewhere 8 per cent. more

valuable, are here only equal to Maria Theresas. In 1846 a French

Mission failed to fix the agio of the 5 franc piece at 10 per cent.

below the Spanish dollar, which still remained 12.50 to 14 per cent.

more valuable. The Company’s rupee, better metal than both the above,

being still a comparative stranger, loses nearly a quarter of its value.

Other silver pieces are the ‘Robo’ (Spanish quarter dollar) of 25 cents,

and the pistoline (20 cents); these, however, are subject to heavy agio.

Small change is always rare, another sure sign of thriftlessness, and it

is strange how scarce is bullion in a land so wealthy: I can only

account for the fact by the Oriental practice of burying treasure.[88]

Where men reside solely for gain and sorely against the grain, little

can be expected from society. Every merchant hopes and expects to leave

Zanzibar for ever, as soon as he can realize a certain sum; every agent

would persuade his employer to recall him. Of late years, also,

foreigners complain of a falling off in ivory, copal, cloves, and other

articles which the natives, it might be supposed, could most easily

supply; thus profits are curtailed, and a penny saved is a penny gained.

Most residents are contented with an Abyssinian or Somali girl, or

perhaps an Msawahili; with a Portuguese cook, who consents to serve till

he also can get away; and with a few hired slaves or free blacks, the

dirtiest, the least honest, and the most disorderly of domestics. The

British Consulate is the only establishment which employs Indian

Moslems, perhaps the best of Eastern attendants. This luxury costs,

however, at least £25 per mens., each man receiving from $10 to $12,

about double the wages paid in India, and all are ever anxious to return

home, the mal de pays making them discontented and unhappy. The bumboat-

men and the beach-combers are Comoro rascals, who sometimes gain

considerable sums; there are also some half-a-dozen negroes, speaking a

little bad French, and worse English, who offer themselves to every

stranger, and who fleece him till turned away for making the quail

squeak. Workmen are hired by the day. Carpenters demand $0.50, three

times the Indian wage, and the day’s work is at most 5 hours; of these

men 4 barely did in 43 what 2 ship-carpenters managed in 5 days. The

blacksmith and tin-man receive from $0.50 to $1 per diem; the goldsmith

is paid according to the value of what he takes in hand—so much per

dollar-weight.

The merchants, par excellence of Zanzibar, are the enterprising Bhattias

or Cutch Banyans. The Periplus (chap. xiv.) mentions an extensive import

trade for Ariáke and Barugaze, the latter generally identified with

Baroch.[89] Vasco da Gama found ‘Indians,’ especially Calicut men, at

Mozambique, Kilwa, Mombasah, and Melinde, and by their information he

reached their native city. From the beginning of the present century the

monopoly fell into the hands of the Bhattia caste. At first they were

obliged to make Zanzibar, viâ Maskat, in a certain ship which sailed

once a year: they were exposed to many hardships and perils: several of

them were murdered, and when a Hindu died the Arabs, like the Turks of

Masawah, claimed the droit d’aubaine. They rose in mercantile repute by

commercial integrity, frugality, and perseverance, whilst the inability

of the Moslem Sarráf to manage accounts or banking put great power into

their hands. At Maskat and the neighbourhood they number nearly 500, and

here about 400.[90] They extend southwards to Angosh (Angoxa) and

Mozambique, where they make fortunes by the sale of Casimir noir, and

where they are now as well treated as they were formerly tyrannized over

by the Portuguese. Thus, though never leaving the seaboard, they command

the inland trade, sending, where they themselves do not care to travel,

Arabs and Wasawahili to conduct their caravans of savages and slaves.

For this reason they have ever been hostile to European exploration, and

report affirms that they have shown no scruples in compassing their

ends. They are equally powerful to forward the discoverer; they can cash

drafts upon Zanzibar, Mandavi, and Bombay; provide outfits, supply

guards and procure the Págázi, or porters, who are mostly their

employés. Ladha Damha farms the customs at Zanzibar, at Pemba Island his

nephew Pisú has the same charge: Mombasah is in the hands of Lakhmidas,

and some 40 of his co-religionists; Pangani is directed by Trikandas and

contains 20 Bhattias, including those of Mbweni; even the pauper

Sa’adani has its Banyan; Ramji, an active and intelligent trader,

presides at Bagamoyo, and the customs of Kilwa are collected by

Kishindas. I need hardly say that almost all of them are connected by

blood as well as by trade.

The Bhattia at Zanzibar is a visitor, not a colonist; he begins life

before his teens, and, after an expatriation of 9 to 12 years, he goes

home to become a householder. The great change of life effected, he

curtails the time of residence to half, and furloughs become more

frequent as transport waxes easier. Not a Hindu woman is found upon the

Island; all the Banyans leave their wives at home, and the consequences

are certain peccadilloes, for which they must pay liberally. Arab women

prefer them because they have light complexions; they are generous in

giving jewels, and they do not indulge in four wives. Most of them,

however, especially those settled on the Coast, keep handsome slave-

girls, and, as might be expected where illegitimates cannot be

acknowledged, they labour under the imputation of habitual infanticide.

On the other hand, their widows may not remarry, and they inherit the

husband’s property if not embezzled by relatives and caste-fellows.

The Bhattias are forbidden, by their Dharma (‘caste-duty’) to sell

animals, yet, with the usual contradiction of their creed, all are

inveterate slave-dealers. They may not traffic in cowries, that cause

the death of a mollusc; local usage, however, permits them to buy

hippopotamus-tusks, rhinoceros-horn, and ivory, their staple of

commerce. We cannot wonder if, through their longing to shorten a weary

expatriation, they have sinned in the matter of hides. This, together

with servile cohabitation, caused a scandal some years ago, when the

Maháráj, their high priest, sent from Malwa a Chela, or disciple, to

investigate their conduct. Covered with ashes and carrying an English

umbrella, the holy man arrived in a severe mood; he rejected all

civilities, and he acknowledged every address with a peculiar bellowing

grunt, made when ‘Arti’ is offered to the Dewta or deity. The result was

a fine of $20,000 imposed upon the rich and wretched Jayaram. The sum

was raised amidst the fiercest and most tumultuous of general

subscriptions, and since that day the spoils of the cow have been farmed

to a Khojah employé. All oppose with might and main the slaughter of

cattle, especially in public, and they attempt to quit the town during

the Moslem sacrificial days.

The long limp black hair, the smooth yellow skin, and the regular

features of the Bhattia, are conspicuous near the woolly mops, the

grinning complexions, and the flat faces of the Wasawahili. His large-

peaked Cutch turban, white cotton coat or shoulder cloth, and showy

Indian dhoti around the loins, contrasts favourably with the Arabs’

unclean garb. The Janeo, or thread of the twice-born, passes over his

shoulder, and, in memory of home, he encircles his neck with a string of

dry Tulsi stalks (Ocimum canum, a species of herb Basil), which he now

grows at Zanzibar. His manners as well as his outer man are rendered

pleasant and courteous by comparison with the rest of the population,

and he is a kind master to his serviles, who would love him if they

possibly could love anything but themselves.

These Hindus lead a simple life, active only in pursuit of gain. On the

Coast, where profits are immense—Trikandas of Pangani, for instance,

claims $26,000 of debt—they have substantial stone houses, large

plantations, and goodly gangs of male and female slaves. Those resident

at Zanzibar are less anxious to display their wealth: all, however, are

now entitled by treaty to manage their own affairs without the

interference of the local Government. These Banyans will buy up the

entire cargoes of American and Hamburg ships: the ivory from the

interior is consigned to them, and they purchase the copal from the

native diggers. They rise at dawn to perform the semi-religious rite

‘Snán’ (bathing), apply to business during the cool of the day, and dine

at noon. Avoiding Jowari, the Arabs’ staff of life, they eat boiled

rice, vegetables, and ghee, or wheaten bread and Mung, or other pulse,

flavoured with assafœtida, turmeric, and ‘warm spices.’ They chew

tobacco, though forbidden by caste rule to smoke it, and every meal

concludes with betel-nut and pepper-leaf, whose heating qualities alone

enable them, they say, to exist at Zanzibar. They work all day, rarely

enjoying the siesta unless rich enough to afford such luxury: they bathe

in the evening, sup at 9 P.M., chew betel once more, and retire to rest.

As the Island contains no local Dewta, the Bhattias are careful to keep

a Vishnu in the house, and to travel about, if possible, with a cow: in

places like Pangani, where the horned god cannot live, they supply its

place by a Hanuman (a small monkey, like the Presbyter Entellus of

India) trapped in the jungle. Pagodas not being permitted, they meet for

public devotions at a house in the southern quarter of the city, where

most of them live, and lately they have been allowed to build a kind of

fane at Mnazi Moyya. As usual with Banyans, the Bhattias have no daily

prayers: on such festivals as the Pitri-paksha—the ‘Manes-Fortnight,’

from the 13th to the 18th of the month Bhadrapad—they call in, and fee a

Brahman to assist them. Their proper priests are the Pokarna, who, more

scrupulous than others, refuse to cross the sea: the Sársat Brahmans, so

common in Sind and Cutch, are the only high-caste drones who to collect

money will visit Zanzibar and Maskat. With a characteristic tenderness,

these Banyans cook grain at the landing-places for the wild slaves,

half-starved by the ‘middle-passage,’ and inclination as well as policy

everywhere induces them to give alms largely. Apostasy is exceedingly

rare: none Islamize, except those who have been perverted by Moslems in

their youth, or who form connections with strange women. The Comoro men,

here the only energetic proselytizers, have, however, sometimes

succeeded: a short time ago two Bhattias became Mohammedans, and their

fellow caste-men declared that the Great Destruction was drawing nigh.

Yet Vishnu slept, and still sleeps the sleep of the just.

When a Bhattia’s affairs become hopelessly involved he generally

‘levants’: sometimes, however, he will go through the Diwali or

bankruptcy, a far more troublesome process than the ‘Gazette.’ The

unfortunate places in his store-front a lighted lamp, whence the name of

the ceremony, and with head enveloped in a sheet, he silently occupies

the furthest corner. Presently a crowd of jeering Moslems collects to

see the furious creditors ranting, scolding, and beating the bankrupt,

who weeps, wails, calls upon his god, and swears to be good for all

future time. These degrading scenes, however, are now becoming rare.

They remind us of the Tuscans and the Boeotians of old, ‘who brought

their bankrupts into the market-place in a bier, with an empty purse

carried before them, all the boys following, where they sat all day,

_circumstante plebe_, to be infamous and ridiculous.’

All Hindus are careful when returning home from foreign travel to purge

away its pollution by performing a Tirth or Yatra to some holy spring,

and by large payments to Brahmans. Moslems declare that when the death-

rattle is heard, one of those present ‘eases off’ the moribund by

squeezing his throat. Banyan corpses are burnt at a place about two

miles behind the town, and the procession is accompanied by a guard to

keep off naughty boys. When a Bhattia dies without relatives on the

Island, a committee of his fellow caste-men meets by the order of H. B.

Majesty’s Consul; takes cognizance of his capital, active and passive;

and, after settling his liabilities, remits by bill the surplus to his

relatives in India.

The following is a list of the other Hindu castes to be found at

Zanzibar:—

Brahman, of whom there are now six individuals, two Gujrati, and four

Rajgarh, both sub-castes of the Sársat. One of them, Pradhán Joshí, is a

Shastri—learned in the Veda.

Khattri, four in number: of these one is a trader, and the rest are

carpenters capable of doing a very little very rough work.

Wáni (pure Banyan) one. There are also three or four of the Lohana sub-

caste from Sind and Cutch.

Lohár, or blacksmith: of this Shudra sub-caste there are five; one acts

Sutár (carpenter), and a second is a Sonár, or goldsmith—in Cutch the

occupations are not separated by ‘Dharma.’

A few Parsees from Bombay visited Zanzibar; two were carpenters, and the

third was a watchmaker, dishonest as his craft usually is. To the

general consternation of Europeans, two Parsee agents lately landed on

the Island, sent by some Bombay house whose name they concealed. These

will probably be followed by others, and if that most energetic of

commercial races once makes good a footing at Zanzibar, it will

presently change the condition of trade. They are viewed without

prejudice by the Arabs and the Wasawahili. The late Sayyid was so

anxious to attract Parsees, who might free him from the arrogance and

the annoyance of ‘white merchants,’ that he would willingly have allowed

them to build a ‘Tower of Silence,’ and to perform, uninterrupted, all

the rites of their religion.