PEMBA. 



15 



population is decimated by small-pox, dumb 

 agues, and bilious fevers. 



In its palmy day many Portuguese, mer- 

 chants and soldiers, settled at Pemba upon large 

 plantations, and with the abundance of water and 

 provisions, amongst which cattle are specified, con- 

 soled themselves for the insalubrity of the atmo- 

 sphere. At the end of the sixteenth century, when 

 that celebrated corsair the Amir Ali Bey had 

 raised the coast, the ' Moors ' of Pemba revolted 

 against their Shaykh, and murdered the foreign 

 settlers — men, women, and children. The chief, 

 with a few fugitives, took refuge in Melinde, and 

 was speedily restored to his own by the Captain- 

 Major Thome de Souza Coutinho, brother of the 

 Viceroy of India. He was again expelled shortly 

 after a.d. 1594 ; and this time he retired to 

 Mombasah, became a Christian, and married a 

 Portuguese orphan : he eventually visited India 

 with D. Prancisco da Gama, who also pro- 

 mised to restore him, and the promise seems to 

 have been kept. In December, 1608, the Island 

 was visited by Capt. Sharpey, en route to India, 

 and the treacherous Europeans persuaded the 

 ' Moors ' to attack his crew, after inveigling them 

 on shore by a show of hospitality. Hence the S il- 

 lanies of Pemba ' became a proverb on the coast. 



