132 



MTANGATA. 



recovered it by diving : the Arabs usually claim 

 half the value of things thus reclaimed. 



Our visit ended with a distribution of em- 

 broidered caps and Jamdani muslins, and we re- 

 ceived farewell visits till dark. At 5 a.m. on Eeb. 

 2nd5 after a sultry night varied by bursts of rain, 

 which sounded like buckets sluicing the poop, 

 we drifted out to sea under the influence of the 

 Barri or land-breeze. Five hours of lazy sailing 

 ran us to an open road between Tanga and Pan- 

 ga-ni, called Mtangata, which, according to the 

 guides, was derived from the people living on 

 toasted grains during war or famine. It is 

 evidently the Portuguese ' Montagane,' whose 

 Shaykh, with 200 men, assisted in 1528 Nuno 

 da Cunha against the Sultan of Mombasah. 

 Exposed to the jS". East wind, and imperfectly 

 defended by two low and green-capped islets, 

 Yambe (North) and Karangii (East), it is ren- 

 dered by the surf and rollers of the Indian Ocean 

 a place of trembling to the coast sailors. The 

 country appears fertile, and a line of little vil- 

 lages, Kisizi, Marongo, Tamba-ni, and others, 

 skirt the shore. Here we spent the day, in order 

 to inspect some ruins, where we had been pro- 

 mised Persian inscriptions and other curios. 



After casting anchor, I entered a canoe and 



