44 



THE FORT. 



waved his hand and cried, Sir ! Sir ! (go ! go ! ) ; 

 but I persisted in sending for the Jemadar Tan- 

 gai, who took my hand and led me towards a 

 shed of leafy branches, some 15 paces outside the 

 Port. Here, he assured me, the Sayyid himself 

 used to faire anti-chambre ; but I could see only 

 hucksters and negroes. We parted in high dud- 

 geon, nor did we ever become friendly. Said bin 

 Salim, who during this scene had remained be- 

 low and afar off, showed us the chief mosque — 

 there were eight when Lieut. Emery visited the 

 town^ — and a formless mass of masonry, which 

 marks the last resting-place of some almost for- 

 gotten heroes.^ 



The climate of the Island is hotter, healthier, 

 and drier than that of Zanzibar. The rains begin 

 with storms in early April, or before the setting 

 in of the S. West monsoon. They are violent in 

 May, and from that time they gradually decrease. 

 Between December and March there are a few 

 showers, for which the cultivator longs ; and, as 

 may be imagined in an island ever subject to the 

 sea-breeze, the dews are exceptionally heavy. 

 The people suffer little from dysentery and fever : 



^ Short account of Mombas and the neighbouring coast of 

 Africa, by Lieut. Emery, E. N. Journal Royal Geographical 

 Society, vol. iii. of 1854. 



2 This may, however, be the pile spoken of by Boteler. 



