416 ARRIVAL AT ZANZIBAR. 



can question, and to arouse popular sentiment against the African 

 slave-trade, which he had been forced to recognize as the most 

 stubborn and powerful enemy of all those schemes of benevo- 

 lence which were springing up in the hearts of Christians for that 

 unfavored land. The days were full of labor and anxiety, and 

 passed rapidly. 



On the 14th of August, 1865, Livingstone left England for 

 the third and last time, under commission as British Consul for 

 Central Africa. He reached Bombay on the 3d of January, 

 1866, and having received commendatory letters to the sultan 

 of Zanzibar, sailed for that island in the " Thule," a vessel which 

 was sent as a present to the sultan by the Bombay government. 

 Twenty-three days were required for the passage, and on the 

 28th of January the ship entered the harbor of Zanzibar. Dr. 

 Livingstone was shown all possible respect, and the sultan im- 

 mediately put one of his own houses at his disposal. Snugly 

 ensconced in this temporary home, he had a little time to look 

 about him, and complete his preparations for the interior. 



Zanzibar is the Bagdad, the Ispahan, the Stamboul, if you 

 like, of East Africa. It is the great mart which invites the 

 ivory traders from the African interior. To this market come 

 the gum-copal, the hides, the orchilla, the timber, and the black 

 slaves from Africa. The population of the island hardly ex- 

 ceeds two hundred thousand ; about half of this number reside 

 in the city. The higher and middle classes are represented by 

 the Arabs, the Banyans, and the Mohammedan Hindis ; below 

 these there are the half-castes and the negro. There are, besides 

 these classes, a number of American and European residents. 

 These are mainly government officials, though a number of in- 

 dependent merchants and agents of great mercantile houses in 

 Europe and America have their homes in the strange surround- 

 ings of this strangest of towns. The Arabs of Zanzibar are 

 Arabs, just as they would be anywhere on earth. The Arab 

 never changes ; wherever he goes he carries the customs, dress, 

 and characteristic peculiarities which distinguish the exactest 

 representatives of his race in their own countries. Nearly all 

 of those who are seen in Zanzibar are experienced travellers, and 

 their very countenances and carriage tell of strange and perilous 

 adventures and habitual wariness and courage. 



