CHAPTER II. 



ARRIVAL AT ZANZIBAR ISLAND. 



' There is probably no part of the world where the English 

 Government has so long had a Resident, where there are always 

 some half-a-dozen merchants and planters, of which we know so 

 little as of the capital and part of the kingdom of one of the 

 most faithful of our allies, with whom we have for half a cen- 

 tury (since 1804) been on terms of intimacy.' — Transactions 

 Bombay Geog. Soc, 1856. 



On December 2, 1856 — fourteen long years 

 ago ! — we bade adieu to the foul harbour of 

 Bombay the Beautiful, with but a single sigh. 

 The warm-hearted Mr Lumsden saw us on board, 

 wrung our hands with friendly vigour, and bade 

 us go in and win — deserve success if we could 

 not command it. No phantom of the future cast 

 a shadow upon our sunny path as we set out, 

 determined either to do or die. I find my jour- 

 nal brimful of enthusiasm. c Of the gladdest 

 moments in human life, methinks, is the de- 

 parture upon a distant journey into unknown 



