DESCRIPTION OF ZANZIBAR. 619 



or any two vessels of war, such as the Admiralty has almost always on hand for 

 sale cheap for cash, would be a god-send to the Sultan of Zanzibar, and a round 

 sum of a few thousands of pounds, given to him as a sign of friendship and 

 good-will, might obviate in some measure the necessity of the large expense 

 which England incurs annually in her laudable endeavours to suppress the 

 slave-trade. There are several ways of regarding such a proposition, but it 

 will not appear outrageous to the candid reader if he reads the above facts 

 dispassionately, and without prejudice. It is a good adage which advises 

 that we should choose the lesser of two evils, and every body will admit that 

 if England could purchase the hearty co-operation of the Zanzibar Sultan 

 with a timely and needful present, in the philanthropic scheme which England 

 has so long attempted to enforce on the East African Coast, it would be less 

 expensive than supporting a large squadron at an expense of several thousand 

 of pounds per annum. And now that the slave-trade is carried on inland, it 

 is more necessary than ever that Seyyid Burghash's good-will should be 

 secured. Without the aid that England could give the Prince, I doubt much 

 whether, however friendly disposed he may be, he can do anything to assist 

 in suppressing the trade for the reasons already given. 



" Turning again to other topics, I may as well sketch the Prince before 

 bowing him my adieu. He is now in the prime of life, probably about forty- 

 two years old, of vigorous and manly frame, and about five feet nine inches 

 in height. He is a frank, cordial, and good-natured gentleman, with a 

 friendly brusqueness in his manner to all whom he has no reason to regard 

 with suspicion. He wears the usual linen dress of the Arabs, with his waist 

 cinctured by a rich belt of plaited gold, which supports the crooked dagger 

 generally borne by an Arab gentlemen. Over his linen dress he wears a 

 long black cloth coat, the edges of which are trimmed with narrow gold braid. 

 His head-dress is the usual ample turban of the Arab, and completing in his 

 person a somewhat picturesque figure. It would be difficult to choose a Prince 

 with whom diplomatic relations could be carried on so easily, provided 

 always that the diplomat remembered that the Prince was an Arab and a 

 Moslem gentlemen. Politeness will always effect more than rudeness with a 

 well-bred Arab. In whatever school of deportment these old British Admirals 

 who, over a steely firmness wear such urbanity, are brought up, it might be 

 recommended that diplomats charged with delicate negotiations should be 

 sent there too, to learn lessons of true politeness. There is, however, one 

 phase in Prince Burghash's character which presents a difficulty in dealing 

 with him, and that is his fanaticism. Ever since he undertook the journey to 

 Mecca, he has shown himself an extremely fervid Moslem, indisposed to do 

 anything or attempt anything not recommended in the Koran. A prince of 

 more liberal religious views might have had an opportunity during the late 

 diplomatic negotiation of permanently bettering himself and his people ; but 



