610 LIFE OF DA VI J) LIVINGSTONE, LL.R 



remember well, when I first returned from Africa, that a great number of 

 those gentlemen who frequent clubs and fashionable societies often asked me, 

 ' Where the deuce is Zanzibar ?' There were people, however, who prospered 

 and grew rich on the ignorance of their white brothers, so woefully deficient 

 in elementary geographical knowledge. These were the staid old merchants 

 of London, New York, Salem, and Hamburg, who had agents living at Zan- 

 zibar, unobtrusively collecting precious cargoes of African productions, and 

 shipping them home to their employers, who sold them again quietly and 

 unobtrusively to manufacturers at enormous profits. Great sums of money 

 were made for many years by these old merchants until the slave-trade ques- 

 tion began to be agitated and Livingstone's fate became a subject of inquiry. 

 At this date a Committee of the House of Commons held a protracted sitting, 

 sifting every item of information relating to the island and its prospects, its 

 productions, commerce, etc., and the ' New York Herald' despatched a special 

 commissioner in search of Livingstone, one result of whose mission was the 

 publication of the name of Zanzibar far and wide. Captain Burton has also 

 written two large volumes, which bear the conspicuous title of ' Zanzibar,' 

 in large gold letters, on their backs ; but very few copies of this work, I ima- 

 gine, have found their way among the popular classes. I mean to try in 

 the present letter to convey a description of the island, its Prince, and such 

 subjects in relation to them, as will suit any mind likely to take an interest 

 in reading it. De Horsey 's ' African Pilot' describes Zanzibar as being an 

 island forty-six miles in length by eighteen miles in width at its greatest 

 breadth, though its average breadth is not more than from nine to twelve 

 miles. The ' African Pilot' and None's ' Epitome' place the island in south 

 latitude 6° 27' 42", and in east longitude 39° 32' 57", but the combined navi- 

 gating talent on board her Majesty's surveying ship Nassau locates Zanzi- 

 bar in south latitude 6° 9' 36", and east longitude 39° 14' 43". Between the 

 island and the mainland runs a channel from twenty to thirty miles in width, 

 well studded with coral islands, sandbars, sandbanks, and coral reefs. 



" The first view the stranger obtains of Zanzibar is of low land covered 

 with verdure. If he has been much informed concerning the fevers which 

 trouble the white traveller in equatorial Africa, he is very likely to be im- 

 pressed in his own mind that the low land is very suggestive of it ; but a 

 nearer view is more pleasing, and serves to dispel much of the vague fear or 

 uneasiness with which he has approached the dreaded region of ill-health and 

 sorrow. The wind is gentle and steady which fills the vessel's sails; the 

 temperature of the air is moderate, perhaps at 70° or 75° Fahrenheit ; the sky 

 is of one cerulean tint ; the sea is not troubled and scarcely rocks the ship ; 

 the shore is a mass or vivid green ; the feathery fronds of palm trees, and 

 the mango's towering globes of foliage relieve the monotony ; while the 

 gleaming white houses of the rich Arabs heighten the growing pleasure with 



