GASI BAY. 



105 



Sandy Point, in Gasi (^l^*-) Bay. It lies half- 

 way between Mombasah and Wasin Island, and 

 the position is correctly laid down in the ' Mis- 

 sion Map.'^ It is a mere roadstead, without 

 other protection against the long sweep and 

 swell of the Indian Ocean than a few scattered 

 ' washes,' and a coralline islet. The settlement 

 lies at some distance from the shore, deep- 

 bosomed in trees, behind a tall screen of ver- 

 dant mangrove; only the nodding cocoa, sure 

 indicator of man's presence in East Africa, 

 towering high over the plebeian underwood, 

 betrays its position to the mariner. The large 

 village of wattle and dab huts is inhabited, like 

 Mtuapa and Takaungu, by remnants of the 

 proud Mazrui irreconcileables, still self-exiled 

 from Mombasah. They live under the^ Shaykli 

 Abdullah bin Khamis, and a sister of Shaykh 



^ ' Imperfect sketch of a Map/ by the Missionaries of the 

 Church Missionary Society in Eastern Africa. J. Eebmauu, 

 Eabia Mpia, April 4, 1850. This is the best yet published 

 as regard the names and position of the settlements. It 

 places Gasi half-way between Wasin Island and Mombasah, 

 and it gives correctly the Jongoliani promontory. The same 

 cannot be said of Herr Augustus Petermann's ' Skizze nach J. 

 Erhardt's Original und der Engl. Kiisten Aufuahme (Captain 

 Owen's, I presume) gezeichnet. Greographische Mittheil- 

 ungen.' Gotha, 1856. It omits Tanga Bay and Cape Jon- 

 golia-ni, whilst it places the Gasi roadstead close to Mom- 

 basah. 



