SMEE, HARDY, OWEN. 



carrying Admiral Blankett's flag, touched at the 

 island for refreshments when beating up against 

 the N. E. monsoon towards the Red Sea. He 

 briefly but faithfully described its geography, 

 and he laid down sailing directions which to 

 this day are retained in Horsburgh. Since then 

 many coasting voyages have been made by naval 

 officers and others, who collected from natives, 

 with more or less fidelity, details concerning the 

 inner country. As early as 1811, Captain Smee 

 and Lieutenant Hardy were sent by the Bombay 

 government to gather information on the eastern 

 seaboard of Africa, and they brought back sundry 

 novel details (Transactions Bombay Geographi- 

 cal Society, 1844, p. 23, &c). Between the years 

 1822-1826 the whole coast line was surveyed by 

 Captain (afterwards Admiral) W. P. Owen, and by 

 his officers, Captains Vidal, Boteler, and others. 

 Their charts and plans of the littoral, despite 

 sundry inaccuracies, such as placing Zanzibar 

 Island five miles west of its proper position, ex- 

 cited general attention, and were justly termed 

 by a modern author miranda tabularum series. 

 During this Herculean labour, which occupied 

 three years, some 300 of the officers and crew 

 fell victims to the climate of the Coast, to the 

 hardships of boat- work, and to the ferocity of 



