" ZANZIBAR " EXPLAINED. 



29 



applied in former times to the coast, the island, and 

 even to the principal town, — are variously laid down 

 by geographers. Usually it is made to extend from 

 Cape Delgado, in S. lat. 10° 41' to the equator, or 

 more strictly to S. lat. 0° 15', at the mouth of the 

 Vumbo, or the Webbe Ganana, which appears in our maps 

 under the deceptive corruptions " Juba" and u Govind," 

 from the Somali " Gob," a junction, and " Gob-wen," a 

 large junction. Mr. Cooley (Inner Africa Laid Open, 

 p. Ill) corrects the great error of the Portuguese 

 historian, de Barros, who has made the embouchure 

 of the Obi — in Somali Webbe, meaning any river, — the 

 demarcation line between "Ajan"on the north, and 

 " Zanguebar" in the south, and has placed the mouth 

 of that stream in 9° N. lat., which would extend Zan- 

 zibar almost to Cape Guardafui. Asiatic authors, 

 according to M. Guillain, (Documents sur l'Histoire, 

 &c. de l'Afrique Orientale. Premiere partie, p. 213) 

 vary in opinion concerning the extent of the " land 

 of the Zunuj " and its limits ; some, as El Masudi, make 

 it contain the whole country, including Sofala, be- 

 tween the embouchure of the Juba River (S. lat. 

 0° 15') and Cape Corrientes (S. lat. 23° 48') : others, 

 like El Idrisi and Ibn Said, separate from it Sofala. 

 In local and modern usage the word Zanjibar is generally 

 confined to the chief town upon the island, the latter 

 being called by Arabs, as well as by the Negroids, 

 Kisiwa, " insula," in opposition to the Barr el Moli, a 

 barbarised Semitic term for the continent. 



As usual throughout these lands, where compre- 

 hensive geographical names are no longer required, 

 there is no modern general word for East Africa 

 south of the equator. The term " Sawahil," or " the 

 shores," in present parlance is confined to the strip of 



