Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/375





ZANZIBAR.

HE region of coastlands stretching north of the Rovuma as far as and beyond Mombaz belonged, like the Mozambique coast, at one time to Portugal, whose power or influence, thanks to its widespread commercial relations, extended in many places for some distance into the interior, But towards the close of the seventeenth century the revolts of the natives, coinciding with the attacks of the Arabs, compelled the whites to abandon their fortresses, and then the whole of the seaboard facing Zanzibar and the neighbouring islands fell into the possession of the Sultan of Muscat. For about a hundred and fifty years this potentate maintained his authority as "King of the Sea" from the Persian Gulf to Cape Delgado. Then in 1856 the empire was divided, the East African coast for a space of about nine hundred miles falling to the share of a son of the Muscat sovereign, whose dynasty, under the guidance and almost the protectorate of Great Britain, acquired considerable power on this seaboard. The name of the Sultan of Zanzibar was respected throughout the whole of East Africa as far inland as Lake Tanganyika and the Upper Congo basin, and it was mainly through his support and influence that travellers were in recent times enabled to bring to a successful issue the numerous exploring expeditions undertaken by them in the regions of the interior stretching west of his dominions. At present the influence, or at least the political role, of Germany has supplanted that of England at the court of the Sultan, who has become a mere vassal of the German Empire.

In 1884 the Ma-Duchi, as the Germans are called by the natives, first began to move beyond their original trading stations for the purpose of securing territory on the east coast of Africa, and in the course of four years their domain has already acquired a great development. In the section of the continent facing Zanzibar, between the two rivers Kingani and Rufu, it comprises a space of about