ZANZIBAR. 



795 



island of Pemba, 960 square kilometres. The 

 Sultan claims authority over the coasts of the 

 mainland from Warsheikh, in 3 of north lati- 

 tude, to Delgado Bay, in latitude 10 41' south. 

 The population of the island of Zanzibar is 

 from 100,000 to 200,000. The ruling class is 

 of the Arab race ; the rest of the population 

 are negroes, except a large contingent of for- 

 eigners engaged in trade. There are about 

 6,000 Britisli subjects, mostly Parsees and Hin- 

 doos, in the city of Zanzibar, and 16.000 in other 

 parts of the sultanate. Zanzibar, the chief 

 town, has from 80,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. 

 The Sultan exercises effective sovereignty on 

 the mainland where the population is com- 

 posed of Somalis and Gallas in the north, and 

 negroes of a great variety of tribes in the south 

 only over the districts on the coast and the 

 caravan routes into the interior. The Sultan 

 has a military force of 1,400 men, and a naval 

 vessel armed with 22 guns. There is besides a 

 large irrdgular force of Arabs employed on the 

 const. The annual revenue is about $1,250,- 

 000. The principal source of revenue is the 

 customs, which the Sultan farms out for about 

 $460,000 a year. The value of the imports in 

 1883 was about $6,100,000; of the exports, 

 $4,000,000. The exports of cloves were val- 

 ued at $1,050,000; of gum-copal, $196,850; 

 rubber, $750,000; skins, $184,123; red pep- 

 per, $36,000. The value of the transit-trade 

 in ivory is about $1,500,000. The leading ar- 

 ticles of importation are cloths, mostly cotton, 

 rice and grain, guns, and kerosene. The largest 

 trade is with Great Britain, the next largest 

 with the United States, Germany coming next, 

 and then France, India, and Arabia. Of 108,- 

 079 tons entered at the port of Zanzibar in 

 1883, about half was British and one quarter 

 Arab; the American tonnage was 6.946. 



German Annexations. In October, 1884, Count 

 Pfeil, Dr. Peters, Herr Jtihlke, and Herr Otto 

 left Berlin on a secret mission. Their destina- 

 tion was ostensibly the Transvaal; but they 

 landed at Zanzibar and, ascending Waami river, 

 concluded treaties with the tribes along the 

 banks in the name of the German East Afri- 

 can Company. In this way they acquired ti- 

 tles to the territories of the Nguru, Usagua, 

 Makata, and TJsagara tribes, a region lying be- 

 tween Zanzibar and the great lakes, abounding 

 in minerals, especially coal. Iron-mines are 

 worked by the natives in TJsagara and the Itum- 

 ba mountains. The climate is sub-tropical, fa- 

 voring the cultivation of coffee, tobacco, vanilla, 

 rice, tea, maize, cocoa, sugar, and silk, and also 

 of some of the products of temperate latitudes. 

 There is a superabundant rainfall. 



A seat of government for the colony was 

 established at the village of M'Kongwa; and 

 the Emperor of Germany gave the company 

 a patent of imperial protection on March 3, 

 1885. 



The German East African Association was 

 founded by a group of enterprising young men 

 who in the spring of 1884 made up a small capi- 



tal for the " practical solution of the colonial 

 question." Its existence was not generally 

 known until the imperial letter of protection 

 and sovereignty was published. The expe- 

 dition arrived in Zanzibar on Nov. 4, 1884. 

 The expedition of Lieut. Becker had already 

 started out for the purpose of acquiring the 

 territory they had in view for the Congo Asso- 

 ciation ; and leaving the greater part of their 

 stores and munitions behind, they outstripped 

 the agents of the Belgian Association in a march 

 so severe that Herr Otto died. They conclud- 

 ed twelve treaties with ten sultans. Five 

 subsequent expeditions were sent out to the 

 territory. Two others added to the possessions 

 of the Association the district of Chutu and 

 the Kilimanjaro country, increasing the area 

 of the colony to 144,000 square miles. Dr. 

 Jiihlke, who conducted the expedition to the 

 mountainous region of the Kilimanjaro, re- 

 turned to Zanzibar on July 6, 1885, after mak- 

 ing ten new treaties with native chiefs, acquir- 

 ing Chagga and other districts in the neighbor- 

 hood of Mount Kilimanjaro. 



The object of the East African Association 

 is to establish not only trading-stations, but an 

 agricultural colony. The region selected for 

 the enterprise, on the slopes of the Kiliman- 

 jaro, is adapted for European settlement. At 

 the end of six months from the time it was 

 chartered, the company possessed a factory 

 arid an agricultural station at Dsagara, and had 

 organized a civil administration, and begun to 

 create a military force, recruited from the na- 

 tive population. The official personnel num- 

 bered about twenty persons, most of them Ger- 

 man officers. The labor for the prospective 

 plantations was to be supplied either by the 

 native ex -slaves, or by imported Javanese, 

 Chinamen, or coolies. The society aims at the 

 gradual emancipation of the slaves, who now 

 perform all the labor in the regions under its 

 administration. No slaves are to be freed with- 

 out compensating the owners. Those who 

 are freed will be compelled to work on the 

 plantations of the society, receiving a share of 

 the produce, until they are educated into a 

 property-possessing laboring-class and can be 

 trusted with complete freedom. 



Several quick-firing cannons of special de- 

 sign were made by Krupp for the defense of the 

 stations against attacks from Arab ivory- and 

 slave-traders, such as Tipu-Tip, the organizer 

 of a vast slave-collecting system in the eastern 

 and most valuable part of the territory of the 

 Congo State, who rivals Seyyid Bargash in 

 wealth and power. 



Conflict with Germany. On March 16, 1885, 

 Dr. Gerhard Bohlfs, the German consular agent 

 in Zanzibar, officially informed Seyyid Bargash 

 of the acquisition by Germans of territories 

 west of his dominions, over which territories 

 the German Government had extended its pro- 

 tection. He had already begun negotiations 

 with the Sultan for a treaty of friendship and 

 commerce with Germany, guaranteeing free- 



