30 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
question her in any way he pleases. Her muscles are 
felt, her lips are turned aside to look at her teeth, 
and the coarsest jokes are cracked at her expense, 
followed of course by the loudest laughter. Her 
qualities are dilated upon by the auctioneer, and a 
bid is presently obtained. The crowd becomes 
excited ; the bidding, examining, joking, and laughter 
go on with greater vigour, till down comes the hammer, 
and a human being has been sold to, she knows not 
whom, a thing to be dealt with in any manner that 
may suit the disposition and character of the pur- 
chaser. What can exceed the hideousness of such a 
transaction ! yet this is the kind of thing that has been 
going on in East Africa for centuries, which is going 
on now, which will continue to go on, which must go 
on, unless England interfere, and put an end to it 
More of the slave trade hereafter. 
The government of Zanzibar is in the hands of the 
Arabs. This people have traded with the coast of 
Africa from time immemorial, and succeeded at a very 
early period in establishing themselves at some of the 
chief islands and ports. They were, however, super- 
seded in the early part of the sixteenth century by 
the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape 
of Storms in 1499, and soon after the Portuguese 
opened up intercourse with Eastern Africa. Compli- 
cations arose between them and the Arabs, and the 
latter were dislodged. The Portuguese soon made 
themselves masters of the whole coast, retaining 
possession till towards the close of the 17th century, 
when the Arabs, under the leadership of an energetic 
chief, of the house of Yurabi, drove out their foes, and 
re-established themselves in the country. In the end 
