THE FETID LAGOON. 



355 



fresh water with the sea, and became now a 

 muddy pool at the ebb tides of the Syzygies, 

 then a sheet of festering mud which nearly en- 

 circled the settlement, and which converted the 

 site of Zanzibar city into a quasi-island. Every 

 evening a pestilent sepulchral miasma arose 

 from it, covering the skin with a clammy sweat, 

 and exhaling a fetor which caused candles to 

 burn dim, and which changed the sound of the 

 human voice. Lazy skippers anchoring here for 

 facility of watering, thus exposing their men 

 to the breath of the fetid lagoon, have lost in a 

 few days half the crew ; and although the water 

 appeared to be of the purest, it became so offen- 

 sive that often the casks had to be started. 



We then passed over a sandy flat, thinly 

 powdered with black vegetable humus. To the 

 left was a creek upon whose sandy beach vessels 

 are hauled up, and where ships of 300 to 400 

 tons can be safely careened : in a few years there 

 will here be a dock. A mile of neat footpath 

 placed us at the late Sayyid's Summer Palace, 

 Mto-ui, which is distant about three direct miles 

 from the Consulate. After escaping the un- 

 pleasant attentions bestowed upon us by the 

 tame ostriches, who are apt to use beak and 

 wing, we dismounted for inspection. The build- 



