SIB JOHN KIRK AT HOME. 
17 
CHAPTER II. 
SIR JOHN KIRK AT HOME. 
ANZIBAR, an island lying 
about twenty miles off tbe 
East Coast of Africa, under 
the sixth parallel south of the 
equator (I feel bound to furnish 
this information in the pre¬ 
vailing state of ignorance re- 
Fig. i.—Sir John Kirk, specting African geography), 
has long been a nucleus of foreign rule along the 
eastern seaboard of the Dark Continent. Without 
going into the questions of its remote history, and 
considering whether it was or whether it was not 
distinctly known to the hazy geographers of classical 
days, we can feel pretty certain that, for nearly as 
many centuries as form the Christian Era, Zanzibar 
has been a place of resort for the Arab and Persian 
traders and slave-dealers of the Red Sea, the Persian 
Gulf, and the coasts of Sind and Gujerat. There was 
at one time a distinct Persian colonization of the East 
African littoral to the north of Zanzibar, and appa¬ 
rently also in Zanzibar itself, though here the inter¬ 
mixture of Persian blood in the local race is in no 
way as evident as in places on the mainland, such 
as Lamu, Malindi, or Magdishu. However, even in 
o 
