RUINS. 



1 



41 



only by some wretched hut, or by a dwarf 

 Shamba-plot of meagre cultivation. 



We inquired for the tomb of the Eesident, 

 Lieut. John James Reitz, who died whilst ex- 

 ploring the Pangani river, and was buried here 

 in 1823. The site was once a church, but it has 

 been turned into a cattle-yard by the Banyans, 

 and now it enjoys the name of Gurayza ya 

 Gnombe (bullock church). Besides some fine 

 old masonry-revetted wells, still supplying the 

 best water, the only traces of the Portuguese and 

 the ' twenty churches of Mombasah ' are ruins of 

 three desecrated fanes, especially the Gurayza 

 Mkuba (great church), the Augustine convent 

 which lies in the north-eastern part of the Gavana. 

 It is not to be compared for interest with the Jesuit 

 remains upon the Rio de Sao Prancisco. The 

 people no longer show, as in 1824, the heap of 

 masonry under which, says Boteler (ii. 1 — 20), 

 they had buried the Moslems who fell during the 

 second massacre of the Portuguese. I did not 

 see the pillar or obelisk and the ruined fort to 

 the S.S. East of the citadel, shown in Captain 

 Owen's chart. The Gurayza Mdogo is near the 

 Augustine convent, and has now all the sem- 

 blance of a dwelling-house. The battery or citadel, 

 built by the Portuguese in 1594, and repaired in 



