DESCRIPTION OF ZANZIBAR. 613 



instead of attracting the real merchant, has, since my last visit, but changed 

 its European inutiles. When I was here before I met a living specimen of the 

 happy and sanguine Micawber class. He is gone, but another fills his place. 

 One can scarcely dare say anything good of Zanzibar, or of any other place, 

 without attracting the wrong class of persons ; and, as I am on this topic, I 

 may as well specify what class can be benefited pecuniarily by immigration 

 to Zanzibar. To an enterprising man of capital Zanzibar, and the entire sea- 

 line of the Sultan's dominions, offer special advantages. A person with a 

 capital of £5,000 might soon make his £20,000 out of it, but not by bringing 

 his money and his time and health to compete with great rich mercantile 

 houses of many years' standing and experience, and settling at Zanzibar, 

 vainly attempting to obtain the custom of the natives, who are perfectly con- 

 tent with their time-honoured white friends, when the entire coast-line of the 

 mainland invites his attention, his capital, his shrewdness, and his industry. 

 The new arrival must do precisely what the old merchants did when they com- 

 menced business. He must go where there is no rivalry, no competition, if 

 he expects to have a large business and quick returns for his money. He must 

 bring his river steamer of light draught, and penetrate the interior by the 

 Rufiji, the Pangani, the Mtwana, or the Jub, and purchase the native produce 

 at first cost, and re-sell to the large mercantile houses of Zanzibar, or ship 

 home. The copal of the Rufiji plain, accessible, as I know by experience, to 

 a light-draught steamer, is now carried on the shoulders of natives to Dar 

 Salaam and Mbuamajii, to be sold to the Banyans, who re-ship it to Zanzibar, 

 and there re-sell to the European merchant. The ivory trade of Unyamwezi is 

 brought down close to Mbumi Usagara, which is accessible in a light-draught 

 steamer by the Wami. The ivory trade of Masai, and the regions north, is 

 carried down through a portion of the Pangani Valley, and the Pangani for 

 a short distance is also navigable, and furnishes a means of enabling the white 

 merchant to overreach his more settled white brothers at Zanzibar. The Jub 

 river, next to the Zambesi, is the largest river on the East Coast of Africa, 

 while it is comparatively unknown. Arab caravans penetrate the regions 

 south of it, and obtain large quantities of ivory and hides. Why should not 

 the white merchant attempt to open legitimate trade in the same articles by 

 means of the river ? When John Bertram, of Salem, Massachusetts, came to 

 Zanzibar, some forty years ago, there was not a single European house here. 

 He was an officer of a whaling vessel when he saw this large town, with its 

 splendid opportunities for commencing a mercantile business. On arriving 

 home, he invested the results of his venture in chartering a small vessel with 

 goods, such as would meet a ready sale in Zanzibar. The speculation turned 

 out to be a fine one ; he repeated it, and then established an agency at 

 Zanzibar, while he himself resided at Salem to conduct the business at hom6, 

 to receive the cargoes from Zanzibar, and ship cloth and other goods to his 



