TANG A BAY. 



113 



self in calculating the time it would take to 

 round the several promontories. But when the 

 water smoothened under the lee of Pemba Island 

 he became bold enough to quote these martial 

 lines : — 



' I have backed the steed since my eyes saw light, 

 And have fronted Death till he feared my sight ; 

 And the riven helm and the pierced mail 

 "Were my youthtide's dream, are my manhood's delight.* 



After two hours of brisk sailing, we lay abreast of 

 a headland called by our crew Kwala (Chala 

 Point of the Hydrographic Map), bounding the 

 deep inlet and outlying islets of Jongolia-ni or 

 Chongolia-ni. Approaching the gape of Tanga 

 Bay, he shortened sail, or we might have made it 

 at 4 P.M. : the entrance, however, is intricate ; 

 we had no pilot, and the crew preferred hobbling 

 in under a bit of artemon or foresail, which they 

 took a good hour to hoist. At sunset, having 

 threaded the ' Bab ' or narrow rock-bound pass- 

 age which separates Ba'as Rashid, the north- 

 ern mainland-spit, a precipitous bluff some 20 

 feet high, from the head of Tanga Islet, we 

 glided into the smooth bay, and anchored in 

 three fathoms, opposite and about half a mile 

 from the town, which is known by the cocoas 

 and calabashes crowning the ridge. 



VOL. II. 8 



