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Notes on Zanguebar. [No. 11, new series 



tested rope, it is cut where the hands meet and each crew carries 

 off its lot in triumph, and when on board, they find it is some fa- 

 thoms too short for the object intended. It is the same if a 

 spar or yard is wanted ; a carpenter will without remorse or 

 shame, cut and chip a yard of seventy-five feet long, and out 

 of such a magnificent and costly piece of timber turn out an 

 uncouth and heavy topsaily yard for a ship of six hundred 

 tons measurement : then comes the fight for chains and cables ; 

 here the scene changes the lascars will do wonders to secure the 

 lightest of all in store ; and were it not for the Nakoodah, would, 

 I think, be satisfied with a couple of boat grapplings, and as many 

 sheet chains, knowing that the lighter the cable and anchor the 

 easier they are handed in. 



In 1 849 I had the misfortune to sail on board of His Higness' 

 ship V Artemise ; five days after departure as I have already men- 

 tioned, we lost rudder and masts ; from that day I took the com- 

 mand of the ship and after a very laborious voyage, I had the 

 pleasure of making the harbour of Simon's Bay. It blew a gale 

 from the south east the day of our arrival, and Simon's Bay is 

 anything but safe and comfortable during a south east gale. When 

 I ordered to prepare the chains and anchors, I w r as told that there 

 w r ere only 45 fathoms of one chain and 40 of another. There was, 

 said the Nakoodah, " a beautiful new coir cable but it was deep 

 in the hold and could not be got at without removing some thou- 

 sand bags of cloves," and that during a gale of wind at the en - 

 trance of False Bay, eight miles (fifty minutes sailing) from the 

 anchorage, and no possibility of laying to with jurymasts and 

 rudder. I went in however, and by a miracle, the anchors stood 

 well until assistance was afforded from shore. I left the ship im- 

 mediately, it was my second Ulyssean voyage on board of His 

 Highness' men-of-war and I had had enough of it. On her return 

 home from London the Artem>se was spoken in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, some where about the equator, and since that time she has 

 not been heard of. In 1854 I had the honor of seeing the Imam's 

 eldest son Seyed Kaled, then Governor of Zanguebar during the 

 Imam's voyage to Muscat ; and the Prince told me that he had 

 not yet lost all hopes of seeing the Artemise back ; she might 

 have been driven into some unknown region : there were, said he, 



