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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo from David Fairchild 

 A GIRL OF MOMBASA 



Lamu there came undoubtedly natives 

 from Arabia long before the days of 

 Islam — perhaps three thousand years 

 ago — and in time there followed a large 

 immigration from Persia. A number of 

 Persians left Shiras and Bashis, and 

 found their way to East Africa, in con- 

 sequence of some internal troubles in 

 Persia at a period in history difficult to 

 fix at this time. Men and women of 

 Lamu show signs in their physiognomy 

 of an intermixture between Persian and 

 negro. When I first visited Lamu in 

 1884 there were beautiful specimens of 

 ancient pottery to be obtained there, 

 either from the houses of the natives or 

 from old tombs. There were old tombs 

 all around the city, in the masonry or 



cement of which exquisite Persian plates 

 were fixed. I did not avail myself of 

 the opportunity to get any of these speci- 

 mens, but people came later who were 

 less scrupulous, and the tombs of Lamu 

 have since been rifled of their potterv 

 and other beautiful examples of ancient 

 art. An examination of the tombs 

 threw very interesting light on the his- 

 tory of East Africa, because they con- 

 tained a good many examples of Chinese 

 pottery, and even Chinese coins. 



Following the Arabs and Persians 

 came the Portuguese. When Vasco da 

 Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope 

 he traveled rapidly with the aid of the 

 north monsoon, reached the Swahihi 

 coast, and built the commemorative col- 

 umn of Malindi, which exists to this day 

 some distance to the north of Mombasa. 

 The Portuguese held for a time Lamu, 

 and for something like two centuries the 

 port of Mombasa, the fortifications of 

 which remain to this day as a signal ex- 

 ample of the wonderful energy of the 

 Portuguese at that period. 



The Portuguese were expelled from 

 this country by an Arab uprising in the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. Some 

 of the women whom President Roose- 

 velt will see at Mombasa are rather ex- 

 tensively clothed, compared to the people 

 of the far interior. They also wear nose 

 rings and other ornaments probably bor- 

 rowed from the Hindus, for there are a 

 great many East Indian settlers at Mom- 

 basa and the other Swahihi ports. 



The people who inhabit the country 

 in the vicinity of Tana River, north of 

 Mombasa, and thence north through the 

 lands of the Boran Gala, are a very inter- 

 esting type, obviously not negro, but per- 

 haps more Caucasian ; only darkened by 

 some old intermixture with the negro 

 races. They often have European feat- 

 ures. Their language is very interest- 

 ing, because it, together with Lamato 

 and other Hamitic tongues, is related to 

 the language of the ancient Egyptians. 



Now we will imagine we have landed 

 at Mombasa and have taken the rail- 

 road. The President will have noticed 

 that the coast belt has a very dense vege- 



