48 



' M OMB AS MISSION: 



The honour of having made the first system- 

 atic attempt to explore and to open up the Zan- 

 zibar interior, is due to the establishment po- 

 pularly known as the c Mombas Mission;' its 

 energetic members proved that it was possible to 

 penetrate beyond the coast, and their discoveries 

 excited a spirit of inquiry which led to the 

 exploration of the Lake Regions. In 1842 the 

 Rev. Dr J. Lewis Krapf, being refused readmit- 

 tance to Shoa, received a c Macedonian call ' to 

 East Africa; in other words, he undertook in 1842, 

 with the approbation of the Church Missionary 

 Society, a coasting voyage to East Africa south 

 of the line. Having visited Zanzibar Island he 

 journeyed northwards (March 1844), and met with 

 a kind reception at Mombasah where he accident- 

 ally landed ; finally he established his head- quar- 

 ters amongst the Wanyika tribe at Rabai Mpia 

 near Mombasah, which then became the base of 

 his operations. He was joined (June 1846) by 

 the Rev. J. Rebmann of Gerlingen in Wurtem- 

 berg, and by Messrs Erhardt and Wagner — the 

 latter a young German mechanic, who died shortly 

 after arrival. In June 2, 1851, came Messrs 

 Conrad Diehlmann and Christian PfefFerle, who 

 soon died. They were followed by three me- 

 chanics, Hagemann, Kaiser, and Mctzler, who 



