406 



APPENDIX I. 



The discount (34 pice, or more than a quarter) of the 

 salaries paid by the H. E. I. Company at Zanzibar 

 became so great that the minor officials of the Consulate 

 required an increase. When I landed at Zanzibar the 

 German crown fetched in the bazar from 107 to 108 pice ; 

 in parts of the mainland where it was accepted, from 112 

 to 130. This fluctuating state of things was very pro- 

 perly put down with a high hand by Sayj^id Majid, who 

 ordered 128 pice to be the legal equivalent of a German 

 crown, assuming it here as in India as equal to two 

 Company's rupees (1 rupee = 16 annas X 4 pice = 64 

 pice X 2 = 128 pice). In these lands he who holds the 

 balance of justice must make things find their own level; 

 however hazardous may be the interference with trade, it 

 is sometimes necessary amongst barbarians to prevent it 

 cutting its own throat. 



The following statement of our losses at Bombay or 

 Zanzibar may be useful to future travellers who are 

 advised to bring out direct bills to II. B. M.'s Consulate. 

 Here they must buy, despite high prices and roguery, 

 cloth and wires, beads and cattle, or they run the risk of 

 carrying useless stock. A letter of credit from a London 

 banker for £500, payable at Bombay, realized only Co.'s 

 rs 4720, the rate of exchange happening to be low. The 

 value of 100 German crowns at Zanzibar then ranging 

 between Co.'s rs 214 and 220, our letter of credit for Co.'s 

 rs 4720 brought $2205. Thus assuming the rupee at 2h. 

 and the dollar at 4s. (it is worth about 2d. more), our loss 

 upon £500 amounted to £87. 



[ Bills on England are generally purchaseabje at a fair 

 rate : until lately S5 have been paid for the pound sterling, 

 and the exchange is now about $4.75. Nothing of the 



