278 



THE PORTUGUESE. 



Arabs and the Baloch still do, intermarried with 

 them, and begot the half-caste Wasawahili, or coast 

 population. In proof that these were the lords 

 of the land, the late Sultan Ahmad, chief of the 

 Shirazi, or free tribe of the mulattoes, received 

 annual presents from the Arab Sayyid of Zanzi- 

 bar. When the former died Muigni Mku, his 

 wazir, or brother — here all fellow-countrymen 

 are brothers — succeeded, in default of other heirs, 

 to the position of monarch retired from busi- 

 ness. He is a common-looking negroid, who lives 

 upon the proceeds of a plantation and periodical 

 presents : he is not permitted to appear as an 

 equal at the Sayyid' s Darbar, and it is highly im- 

 probable that he will ever come to his own again. 



The Sawahil or Azania continued to ac- 

 knowledge Arab and Persian supremacy till the 

 appearance of the Portuguese upon the coast. 

 D. Vasco da Gama passed Zanzibar Island 

 without sighting it when first bound Indiawards, 

 and authors differ upon the subject of his return 

 voyage. The historian Toao de Barros (i. 4, 11) 

 relates that the expedition made its land-fall 

 from India below Magadoxo (Makdishu or 

 Maka'ad el Shaat, c the sitting-place of the 

 sheep'), 1 beat off a boat attack from 'Pat6' 



1 So called from some silly vision of an illuminated sheep 



