EXPENSE. 



323 



ported from America or from Europe, — the town 

 supplies nothing so civilized. Retail dealing is 

 wanted, and the nearest approach to a shop is 

 the store of a Khojah, who will buy and sell 

 everything, from a bead to a bale of cloth. 



All articles but money are expensive at Zan- 

 zibar, where the dollar represents our shilling. 1 

 This is the result of the large sums accumulated 

 by trade and of the necessity of importing pro- 

 visions ; we see the same process at work through- 

 out the tropical Brazil. Moreover, in all semi- 

 barbarous lands a stranger living like a native, 

 may live upon ' half-nothing ; ' if he would, how- 

 ever, preserve the comforts of home, and especially 

 if he would see society, he must consent to an 

 immoderate expenditure. Finally, where the 

 extremes of wealth and poverty meet, and where 

 semi-civilization has not discovered that pru- 

 dence is a virtue and improvidence a blunder, 

 the more man spends the more he is honoured. 



1 I have been much amused by the comments of the press 

 upon the expenses of minor officials living abroad, as elicited 

 from Ministers and Charges d' Affaires by the Diplomatic Com- 

 mittee of 1870. There seems to be a deeply-rooted idea in the 

 British brain that, because heavily taxed, our native island is 

 the most expensive of residences. On the contrary, I have 

 even found England the cheapest country, and London the 

 cheapest capital in Europe. At Fernando Po my outlay was 

 never less than £1800; at Santos (Brazil) it was £1500; at 

 Damascus, from £1200 to £2000, and so forth. 



