9S 



DRINKING WATER. 



yellow fever ; and the history of our West Indian 

 settlements proves, if proof be required, how 

 fatal is night exposure. 



Zanzibar, city and island, is plentifully sup- 

 plied with bad drinking water. Below the old 

 sea-beach, and near the shore, it is necessary only 

 to scrape a hole in the soft ground. Throughout 

 the interior the wells, though deep, are dry 

 during the hot season, and the people flock to the 

 surface-draining rivulets. West Africans gener- 

 ally will not drink rain-water for fear of dysen- 

 tery; and so with us — when showers fell in 

 large drops men avoided it, or were careful to 

 consume it soon lest it should putrefy. The 

 purest element is found at Kokotoni, a settlement 

 on the IS 1 . W. coast of the island, and in the 

 Bububu, a settlement some five miles north of 

 the. city, where Sayyid Suleyman bin Hamid, 

 once governor of Zanzibar, had a small establish- 

 ment, and where Hasan bin Ibrahim built a large 

 house called Chuweni or Leopard's Place. So at 

 Sao Paulo de Loanda the drinking water must 

 be brought from the Bengo river. The best near 

 the city is from a spring which rises behind the 

 royal Cascine, Mto-ni. Here the late Sayyid 

 built a stone tank and an aqueduct 2000 yards 

 long, which, passing through his establishment, 



