16 



PEMBA. 



A steep path, a yellow streak on the dark 

 green ground, leads np to the Port, which, situ- 

 ated heyond the settlement, commands the creek 

 and landing-place. It is evidently an old Por- 

 tuguese building. The frontage is a loop-holed 

 curtain of masonry, flanked on the right by a 

 round tower — a mere shell — and on the left by a 

 square turret, pent-housed, with cajan mats. A 

 few iron guns, honeycombed to the core, lie 

 around the walls ; the entrance is dilapidated ; 

 and the place, now undergoing repairs, is like 

 most ' Forts ' in these regions, about as capable 

 of defence as the castled crag of Draclienfels. 

 Hearing the people of Pemba call it, as at Mas- 

 kat, ' Gurayza,' evidently a corruption of Igreja, 

 and now meaning a combination of fortress and 

 jail, I inquired about Portuguese ruins, and 

 heard of two deserted churches, in one of which 

 a bit of steeple is still standing. The Lusita- 

 nians, in later times, long made the Green Isle 

 one of their principal slave-depots : even in 1822 

 their ships traded regularly to Chak-Chak. I 

 did not visit the ruins, which are said to be dis- 

 tant one day's march : there is nothing to in- 

 terest man in the relics of the semi-barbarous 

 European rule. The Island also boasts of a 

 single mosque. The Pemba men pray at home, 



