Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/496

 Within the bar, and on the north or left side of the Ozi branch, stand the two little towns of Shagga and Kipini, near which are some long-abandoned and sandencumbered ancient structures resembling the ruined edifices of Melinda. According to Denhardt these ruins date from the fifteenth, or at latest the sixteenth, century. The modern town of Kipini, founded so recently as the year 1868, has teen rapidly developed, thanks to the local traffic which it fostered. Within. ten years of its foundation it had already as many as two thousand inhabitants, and it

acquired such importance that the Sultan of Zanzibar here established a wali, or political agent, as well as a custom house.

Kau, lying farther up but on the same left side of the Ozi, is another little trading place inhabited chiefly by Swaheli traders. These coast people support the national reputation for hard dealing, and they also rule with a hand of iron the unfortunate Wapokomo peasantry whom they employ to cultivate the delta. Vitu, residence of Sultan Akhmed, who has placed himself under German