SA'ABANL 



269 



by intercourse with superior races, these Avith 

 Europeans, those with the Arabs. * Otondo ' is 

 mentioned in the Portuguese inscription over the 

 fort gate of Mombasah ; and in 1528 its Shavkh 

 came to the assistance of Nuno da Cunha with 

 five or six thousand black archers, probably slaves 

 and savages, who are described as very agile and 

 trained to war. 



Sa'adani stands upon a swampy green flat, 

 defended, as are most of these places, against the 

 sea, which is apparently but little below its level, 

 by a high sandbank and natural dykes. From Pan- 

 ga-ni, southward, the littoral suddenly falls flat, 

 becoming an alluvial plain of green swamps, cut 

 bv hundreds of mano^rove creeks : it is backed bv 

 higher ground, the blue line seen from Zanzibar 

 Island, and the habitat of the wilder races. The har- 

 bours are mostly open roads or inlets, into ^ hich 

 only native craft can run, whilst square-rigged 

 ships must lie three miles in the ofling, and much 

 exposed. The deeper water abounds in fish, and 

 the tides retire 12 to 13 feet, leaving a broad 

 expanse of naked mud. Constant troubles with 

 neighbours have caused this port-village to be 

 surrounded by a strong stockade of tree-trunks, 

 and have greatly reduced its extent. The hun- 

 dred huts of thatch, wattle and dab, may now 



