THE MISSIONS. 



103 



tral situation, the depot of the richest trade in 

 Eastern Africa, its present buildings are almost 

 all modern. At the beginning of this our 

 nineteenth century it consisted of a fort and a 

 ragged line of huts, where the 6 Suk Muhogo ' 

 now stands. Dr Huschenberger (1835) satisfied 

 himself that e the town of Zanzibar and its in- 

 habitants possess as few attractions for a Chris- 

 tian stranger as any place and people in the 

 wide world.' As late as 1812 this chief em- 

 porium of a most wealthy coast boasted but five 

 store-houses of the humblest description, and 

 the east end was a palm plantation. Since my 

 departure the city, as the trade returns show, 

 has, despite unfavourable political circumstances, 

 progressed. A Catholic mission, sent by Prance, 

 has established an hospital, and two schools for 

 boys and girls, and the English Central African 

 Mission has followed suit. These establishments 

 must differ strangely from the normal thing — 

 the white-bearded pedagogue, hugging his bones 

 or rocking himself before a large chintz-covered 

 copy of the Koran, placed upon a stand two feet 

 high, so as to be above man's girdle, and, when 

 done with, swathed in cloth and stowed away. 

 A change, too, there must be in the pupils; 

 former]y half a dozen ragged boys, some reciting 



