X 



PREFACE. 



' When searching the strong box belonging to the 

 Bombay Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society yesterday I 

 found the accompanying parcel, directed to the Secretary 

 Eoyal Geographical Society, with a pencil note upon it, 

 requesting that it might be sent to the Secretary of State, 

 Foreign Office. From the signature in the corner, E. F. 

 B., I conclude that it must be the manuscript he sent to 

 Colonel Eigby at Zanzibar, and which, from some state- 

 ments of Mr Burton (to which I cannot at present refer, 

 but of which I have a clear recollection), never reached its 

 destination. 1 



' I have not been able to discover when or how the 

 parcel was received, nor how the Bombay Branch of 

 the Eoyal Asiatic Society was to send it to the Foreign 

 Office, except through Government. I therefore send it to 

 you, and perhaps you would send it to the Under Secretary 

 at the India House, with the above explanation, and re- 

 quest that it be sent to its direction. 



I have, &c, 

 (Signed) C. Eavenscroft, 

 Acting Chief Secretary to Government/ 

 * * * * 



It is not a little curious that, as my first report upon 

 the subject of Zanzibar was diverted from its destination, 



1 Mr Frere's memory is unusually short. I intrusted the MS. to 

 the Eurasian apothecary of the Zanzibar Consulate, and I suspected 

 (Lake Regions of Central Africa, vol. i. chap, i.) that it had come to an 

 untimely end. The white population at Zanzibar had in those days 

 a great horror of publication, and thus is easily explained how a 

 parcel legibly addressed to the Royal Geographical Society had the 

 honour of passing eight years in the strong box of the ' Bombay 

 Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.' 



