92 



Notes on Zanguehar. [No. 11, new series, 



xnon. There are at Zanguebar more than a thousand dow carpen- 

 ters, caulkers and smiths who might in one year be made good 

 shipwright artificers. The French Consul was struck with all 

 these favorable considerations. The high spring tides in the har- 

 bour afforded great facilities for hauling a ship high and dry for 

 repairs ; and yet during the first year of his stay at Zanguebar, four 

 good ships were declared unseaworthy, and sold at a great loss to 

 the under- writers. The French Consul, considering that no har- 

 bour for repairs was to be found in the Indian Ocean south of the 

 equator, with the exception of the Mauritius, where all repairs are 

 exceedingly expensive, thought that it would be a philanthropic 

 act of universal interest to turn the eyes of the Imam to that sub- 

 ject ; he told His Highness that he would act wisely in building 

 his ships in his own dominions, and he explained to him all the 

 considerations of economy we have related above, he also threw 

 into the balance the glory resulting to the Imam in having his own 

 dock yards ; but of the facilities the execution of this project would 

 afford to Christian ships, not a word was said, or the suspicious 

 Sultan would have at once rejected the scheme ; the French Con- 

 sul was partly successful and the construction was resolved on by 

 the Imam, " Insha-allah I" 



Then the project was made public, and from that moment all in- 

 fluences were stirred to bring the undertaking to as poor a result 

 as possible. The timber, iron and copper were brought from Bom- 

 bay and the Malabar Coast ; the builder was an ignorant fellow, 

 his fabric was an ugly unseaworthy hulk ; and when the expenses 

 were summed up, the unlucky ship was found to have cost nearly 

 twice what would have been charged at Cochin. The Imam would 

 hear no more of such experiments, and builder and artificers wer e 

 at once dismissed. 



What could have induced Colonel Hamerton to oppose so 

 strongly the opinion of his colleague and friend Captain Broquant ? 

 The French Consul's ideas were sound, wise, based on perfectly 

 evident facts, and supported by Christian and commercial reasons 

 of the highest and most respectable order ; — but they were origi- 

 nated by a Frenchman, and that was sufficient to lead the English 

 Resident to oppose them per fas aut nefas. The French Consul — 



