EAST AFRICA. 



187 



the expenditure of the public revenue, while the 

 Sultan has the function of administering the exist- 

 ing Mohammedan laws under the control of the 

 British agent, who receives his instructions from 

 Ilie Foreign Office in London. The Seyyid now 

 reigning owes his throne to the British, who set 

 ;iside the claimant favored by the Arab population. 

 He receives an allowance out of the revenue of 

 120,000 rupees a year, and all the rest is devoted 

 to the police, about 900 men under an English 

 officer, the harbor works and other public improve- 

 ments, and the general purposes of government. 

 The port of Zanzibar, which has about 30,000 in- 

 habitants, is the chief distributing point for the 

 trade of all East Africa, and it is mostly in the 

 hands of East Indians, whose connections are in 

 Bombay and who for centuries have been the prin- 

 cipal merchants of East Africa. There are about 

 7,000 of these Banyan traders in Zanzibar. The 

 landowners are Arabs who have clove plantations 

 in Pemba, and who grow rice, copra, and other 

 products in Zanzibar and on the mainland and 

 deal in ivory, rubber, and sometimes slaves. The 

 imports of Zanzibar in 1898 amounted to 1,- 

 555,070 and the exports to 1,497,883. These fig- 

 ures include not only the foreign trade, but that 

 between the port of Zanzibar and the other ports 

 of the sultanate. Imports of cloves were valued 

 at 158,507 and exports at 143,730; imports of 

 rice at 197,160 and exports at 147,320; imports 

 of cloth at 376,966 and exports at 361,875; im- 

 ports of ivory at 113,164 and exports at 112,- 

 914; imports of coal at 32,801; imports of copra 

 at 59,315 and exports at 105,114; imports of 

 groceries at 58,006 : imports of rubber at 30,853 

 and exports at 34,622. The trade was divided 

 among different countries as follows : 



The year 1898 was one of great prosperity, re- 

 sulting from an enormous clove crop, which reached 

 21,000.000 pounds, and the money put into circu- 

 lation by the building and opening of the railroad 

 from Mombasa. This was followed by a year of 

 dearth caused by the Boer war and the failure of 

 rains. Countries that usually export grain became 

 buyers at famine rates. The clove crop was only 

 6,965,000 pounds the smallest on record. The 

 only export that increased was hides, for cattle 

 could not be fed, and died or were killed, the 

 largest quantity of the hides and of goatskins 

 going to the United States. The supply of ivory 

 does not diminish, although the elephants are 

 being killed off. It is kept up by the finding of 

 old hoards and by pushing the caravans farther 

 inland each year. Imports from the United States 

 are gray sheetings and shirtings and kerosene. 



The number of vessels entered at the port of 

 Zanzibar during 1898, excluding coasting vessels, 

 was 183, of 286,209 tons. The unit of value is the 

 Maria Theresa dollar, though the Indian rupee is 

 universally current at the exchange value of 47 

 cents. Justice between the Sultan's subjects is 

 administered by the Mohammedan kasis. Civil 

 cases are usually brought before the British court, 

 from which an appeal lies to the High Court of 

 Bombay. There is an admiralty court which con- 

 demns captured slave dhows. The British court 



has jurisdiction over slaves freed by the British 

 agent, but usually if a slave wants freedom he 

 must go before a kazi. The legal status of slavery 

 was abolished by the decree of April 6, 1897. 

 Many were emancipated in the beginning, and 

 then there was a pause, due mainly to the inter- 

 pretation put by the British authorities on a clause 

 of the emancipation decree which says that any 

 person whose right to freedom may have been form- 

 ally recognized is bound to show that he pos- 

 sesses a regular domicile and means of subsistence 

 on pain of being declared a vagrant. Slaves who 

 applied to the British authorities for emancipation 

 were refused unless the owner or some other re- 

 sponsible person undertook to give them land and 

 to be responsible for their future. Under this 

 interpretation a slave to obtain freedom must leave 

 his master's shamba, running the risk of arrest for 

 vagrancy while endeavoring to find an employer. 

 None will employ him until he has obtained his 

 certificate of freedom, and this the courts will not 

 grant unless the prospective employer will appear 

 or send a letter guaranteeing his future good be- 

 havior. The Foreign Office in London has repudi- 

 ated the interpretation put upon the emancipation 

 by the local authorities. However slow the prog- 

 ress of emancipation, the decree has altered the 

 position of the slave, who is now paid for his labor 

 the same as a freeman. 



British East Africa Protectorate. The coun- 

 try between the Juba and the Umba rivers and 

 the border of Uganda and the sea was proclaimed 

 a British protectorate on Aug. 31, 1896, and placed 

 under the control of the Foreign Office, with the 

 British agent and consul general at Zanzibar as 

 head of the administration. It is divided into the 

 administrative divisions of the coast province, 

 called the Seyyiddieh, Ukamba, Tanaland, which 

 includes Witu and Jubaland. The estimated popu- 

 lation of 2,500,000 includes 25,000 Asiatics and 450 

 Europeans and Eurasians. Mombasa, the capital 

 of the protectorate and the sea terminus of the 

 Uganda Railroad, has two good harbors, which are 

 being improved by the construction of jetties and 

 wharves. Its present population is about 30,000. 

 Lines of telegraph and a submarine cable connect 

 it with Lamu and Zanzibar, the land lines having 

 a length of 140 miles. The revenue in 1898 was 

 43,841, and in 1899 was 50,000. The imports in 



1898 were 4,464,827 rupeees in value, and in 1899 

 they amounted to 7,025,000 rupeees. The exports 

 in 1898 were valued at 1,087,266 rupees, and in 



1899 at 1,067,000 rupees. The tonnage entered in 



1898 was 196,630 tons, and in 1899 it was 321,480 

 tons. A duty of 5 per cent, is levied at the ports 

 under the Brussels act. The principal exports are 

 ivory, rubber, cattle, goats, hides and horns, copra, 

 grain, and gum copal. Cotton cloth is imported 

 from Bombay and Manchester, and recently Amer- 

 ican cloth also. Provisions are imported, and 

 beads and brass wire for trade. The Banyan 

 merchants have control of the trade. Mangrove 

 timber is brought for building purposes from other 

 parts of the coast. A severe drought in 1898 and 



1899 caused a general famine. The highlands in 

 the interior are believed to be well adapted to 

 cattle growing by Europeans. The Massai tribes 

 formerly rendered the country dangerous to live or 

 travel in, but punitive measures have taught them 

 to respect British authority. 



The Uganda Railroad has cost already more than 

 the original estimate, and the final cost is more 

 problematical than it seemed when that estimate 

 was made because the route has not yet been ac- 

 curately surveyed. The British Government hav- 

 ing undertaken the work, Parliament will supply 

 the money to complete it, and before 1903 it will 



