124 



< ZANZIBAR: 



Mela, Ptolemy evidently made his great point de 

 depart the Aromata Promontorium et emporium 

 in Barbarico sinu (Cape Guardafui), and he placed 

 it N. lat. 6° 0' 0" instead of N. lat. 11° 50'. 

 This error threw the whole coast 6° (in round 

 numbers, more exactly 5° 50') too far south, 

 and made the world doubt the accurate position 

 of the Nile lakes. Thus, to his latitude of Opone 

 N. 4° add 5° 50', and we have N. lat. 9° 50', the 

 true parallel of Hafun being N. lat. 10° 26'. 



Amongst late authors we find the word Zan- 

 zibar creeping into use. The Adulis inscrip- 

 tion (4th century) gives 6 Zingabene ' ; and its 

 copier, the Greek monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, 

 who proved the globe flat (6th century), calls the 

 ' unnavigable ' ocean beyond Berberia, the ' Sea 

 of Zenj,' and the lands which it bathes 6 Zingi- 

 um.' It is found in Abu Zayd Hasan, generally 

 known as Hunayn bin Ishak (died a.d. 873) ; in 

 El Mas'udi, who describes it at some length 

 (died a.d. 957) ; in El Bayruni (11th century), 

 and in the learned 6 Nubian Geographer,' the 

 Sherif El Idrisi (a.d. 1153). Marco Polo (a.d. 

 1290), who evidently wrote his 37th chapter 

 from hearsay, makes Zanzibar a land of blacks ; 

 and, confounding insula with peninsula (in 

 Arabic both being Jezireh), supplies it with a 



