106 



GASI BAY. 



Mubarak of Mombasah, who is said to display 

 peculiar energy. They have given refuge to 

 fugitive slaves from Marka, and behind the coast- 

 line they have founded a new settlement, Mwa- 

 sagnombe. It is not improbable that, in com- 

 mon with their brethren established in other 

 villages, they look forward to recovering Mom- 

 basah, their old appanage. 



Gasi is surrounded by plantations, and the 

 Arabs, unmolested by the Wadigo savages, to 

 whom the fertile land belongs, live in com- 

 parative comfort. Our crew armed themselves 

 to accompany my companion, who, despite the 

 bad name of the people, was civilly received on 

 shore, with sundry refreshments of cocoa-nut 

 milk and cake of rasped pulp and rice-flour. 

 The footprints of a small lion appeared upon the 

 sands, but we were not young enough to under- 

 take the fruitless toil of tracking it. This was 

 the breeding season, as the frequent birds' -nests 

 proved. Ensued a cool, breezy night on board 

 the Eiami, the thermometer showing 75° (E.). 

 Our gallant captain, the melancholist, sat up 

 till dawn, chatting with Said bin Salim, who 

 trembled at the sound of scattered washes, and 

 at the wind moaning over the coral bank and 

 through the barren ' forests of the sea.' 



