326 



SERVANTS. 



ployer to recall him. Of late years, also, foreign- 

 ers complain of a falling off in ivory, copal, cloves, 

 and other articles which the natives, it might be 

 supposed, could most easily supply ; thus profits 

 are curtailed, and a penny saved is a penny 

 gained. Most residents are contented with an 

 Abyssinian or Somali girl, or perhaps an Msa- 

 wahili; with a Portuguese cook, who consents to 

 serve till he also can get away ; and with a few 

 hired slaves or free blacks, the dirtiest, the least 

 honest, and the most disorderly of domestics. 

 The British Consulate is the only establishment 

 which employs Indian Moslems, perhaps the best 

 of Eastern attendants. This luxury costs, how- 

 ever, at least £25 per mens., each man receiving 

 from $10 to $12, about double the wages paid 

 in India, and all are ever anxious to return 

 home, the mal de pays making them discon- 

 tented and unhappy. The bumboat-men and 

 the beach-combers are Comoro rascals, who some- 

 times gain considerable sums; there are also 

 some half-a-dozen negroes, speaking a little bad 

 French, and worse English, who offer themselves 

 to every stranger, and who fleece him till turned 

 away for making the quail squeak. Workmen 

 are hired by the day. Carpenters demand $0.50, 

 three times the Indian wage, and the day's 



