KILWA KIVINJYA. 



343 



Mehmans, and Borahs. Of the Banyans none had 

 died by cholera : the Indian Moslems had lost 

 11 or 12. An old Hindostani kindly housed ns 

 in a neat, clean dwelling with matted floor, white 

 mattresses rolled up in the corners, black-wood 

 writing-desks in the niches, pictures of men 

 with gigantic moustaches on the walls, an old 

 wooden clock still ticking, and two noble tusks 

 of Uhiao ivory, bearing the purchaser's mark. 

 The tenement was not so pleasant outside : it 

 was invested with a mass of filth, the sea washed 

 up impurities to the very palisades, and farther 

 out the bay -water was covered with a brown scum 

 of sickening taint. We were presently visited by 

 the very civil and obliging Wali, Sayf bin Ali, an 

 old traveller to Unyamwezi : the people being 

 greatly demoralized, he ordered our lodgings to 

 be guarded at night. Yarok, the Jemadar of 

 Baloch, also confided to us his desire of becoming 

 C. 0. : the step was vacant by cholera, and many 

 of his men had lost the number of their mess. 



After seeing and smelling Kilwa I did not 

 wonder that cholera during the last 15 days had 

 killed off half the settlement. Accordinsr to the 

 people, it was the first attack ever known to East 

 Africa: that which decimated Maskat in July, 

 1821, did not extend to Zanzibar. They agreed 



