xxiv THE LAND OF THE LION 



January, 1697, the plague broke out in the garrison 

 and by July 236. there remained but the Commandant, 

 nine Swahili, fifty native women, and the king of a neigh- 

 bouring tribe Faza. 



The Commandant died August 24th yet the desperate 

 remnant somehow managed to keep the Arabs out for 

 three weeks. 



A relieving fleet came in September, and 150 Portuguese 

 soldiers and 300 Indian mercenaries were thrown into the 

 place then the grip of the besiegers closed on it again. 



For fifteen months longer this almost unparalleled struggle 

 went on, till December 12, 1698, when the Arabs at last 

 stormed. The garrison, reduced to eleven men and two 

 women, was too feeble to offer serious resistance, and all 

 were slaughtered. 



1699, 1703, 1710. Portuguese expeditions tried to 

 retake Mombassa and failed. What a story of tenacity, 

 cruelty, and courage it is! and scarcely one memorial 

 of it save the yellow crumbling citadel, and its deep moat 

 hewn with infinite labour from the coral rock, remains. 



Dense tropic tangle and the carelessness of the East 

 have combined to wipe out almost entirely the scanty 

 memorials of the great past even the graves of the 

 brave dead of those old days are now lost and forgotten. 

 Arab and Portuguese alike, no one knows where they lie. 



One of the most intelligent Arabs in Mombassa one 

 too, who claims descent from the conquering Sultans who, 

 drove the Portuguese out and for so long reigned in their 

 stead gravely assured me that there never were any 

 Portuguese graves as they always buried their dead at 

 sea. He was equally ignorant as to where his own con- 

 quering ancestors, who fell before the place, lay. 



