3G2 



KILWA CHRONICLE. 



Wasongo, a tribe of Shirazis.^ A certain Shaykb. 

 Yusuf from Sliangaya^ bought land from Napendu, 

 the heathen headman, by spreading it over with 

 cloth, built the old fort, won the savage's 

 daugliter, slew his father-in-law, and became the 

 sire of a lom^ race of Shirazi ' Kins^s of the 

 Zinj.' 



The history of Kilwa is probably better known, 

 thanks to its chronicle found by the Portuguese, 

 than any place on the East coast of Africa. It 

 is the usual document of Moslems and Easterns, 

 amongst whom the man reigns, a roster of rulers, 



^ This is probably a confusion with the legend of Ali bin 

 Hasan, the Shirazi chief, who, according to the ' Kilwa Chro- 

 nicle ' (De Barros, 1st Decade of Asia, viii. 4, 5), occupied 

 Kilwa in our 11th century. There may have been a second 

 emigration from Shangaya after the 14th century, but the tale 

 of the cloth is suspicious. Cloth, however, has played every- 

 where upon this coast the part of gold and silver. Sofala was 

 anciently a monopoly of Makdishu, which traded with it for 

 gold on condition of sending every year a few young men to 

 improve the * Katir' race, the latter highly valuing the compar- 

 atively white blood. A fisherman of Kilwa l)aving been carried 

 by the currents to the S. Eastern Gold Coast, reported this 

 state of affairs to Daud, 10th Shirazi Sultan of Kilwa. This 

 chief succeeded jn getting the rich trade into his own hands by 

 oliering as many pieces of cloth as the youths sent by the 

 people of Makdishu, and by also supplying emigrants to marry 

 the daughters of the savages. 



2 The Eev. Mr Wakefield (loc. cit. p. 312) calls this place 

 Shungwaya, and states that it is a district between Goddoma 

 and Kauma (Wanyika-land); whilst his authority, Sadi, declares 

 it to be the original home of all the Wasegeju. 



