From Naples to Entebbe. 
The island upon which the city is built is known in the 
native language as Kisiwa mwita, or “ Island of War,” a name 
which agrees with its history, which is entirely made up of 
warlike vicissitudes. Mombasa is the best port on the whole 
east coast of Africa, and was a valuable station on the old 
trade route for India before the Suez Canal. For these reasons 
it was for centuries one of the most eagerly sought positions 
and one of those most persistently disputed between the Arabs, 
Portuguese, and Turks, who held it alternately. When the 
Portuguese domination came to an end in 1729, Mombasa was 
KAVIRONDO WOMEN. 
governed for over a century by Arabs of the family of Mazrui, 
under the nominal suzerainty of the Imans of Oman. When 
the latter transported their capital from Maskat to Zanzibar, 
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