CHAPTEE II. 



MOMBASAH OR MVITA.^ 



'Est autem urbs ilia sita intra sinum quemdam in rupe 

 praecelsa et edita. Fluctus cum se ab introitu sinus incitant, 

 in adversam frontem urbis incurrunt. Inde deducti introrsus 

 penetrant et utrumque latus urbis alluunt ita, ut peninsulam 

 efficiunt.' — Osoeto, describing Mombasah. 



From early ages the people of this inhospit- 

 able coast left untried neither force nor fraud, 



^ This Kisawahili name is usually written by the Arabs 

 * Mfita.' Dr Krapf prefers ' Mwita,' and remarks that the 

 ' Wamwita,' together with remnants of 11 other tribes, repre- 

 sent the original inhabitants of Mombasah. The natives would 

 also pronounce Mombasah as Mombasa ; and indeed so it is 

 written by Ibn Batuta (chap. ix.). The silent terminal aspirate 

 of the Arabic and Persian becomes in Kisawahili a long a, e.g. 

 Ndild, a coffee-pot, from the Arabic Dallah and Darisha, a 

 window, from the Persian Daricheh. The translation of El 

 Idrisi (Climate I. sect. 7), gives Manisa two days from Me- 

 linde, evidently a conception of Mvita. Capt. Hamilton (India, 

 chap, i.) unduly contracts it to ' Mombas,' and this seems to be 

 the cacography adopted of late years. 



