Page:Some account of the town of Zanzibar.djvu/9

 Swahili—being the official and the trade language, is everywhere more or less understood, so that whereas if you learnt one of the up-country languages you would be a stranger everywhere else, if you have well mastered the Swahili you are at home everywhere, in every tribe you will find some who can act as interpreters, and who can at once open to you the intricacies of their own tongue. What other marks could distinguish a place as fitted for the head quarters of a Mission save such as these, which make this town the actual head quarters of trade, of government, and of language?

But after all Zanzibar is on an island. So it is, and so are Mozambique, and Mombas, and Lamoo, and all the great towns of this coast. They have all been built by settlers who were afraid of marauding tribes from the interior, and therefore always preferred some safe place to land their goods in. Another reason is that harbours on this coast are generally formed by islands, and Zanzibar has in many respects the best of them. Its island being large, about forty miles by sixteen, and a good distance from the mainland makes a safe place for cultivation, whereas the Portuguese at Mozambique, who are on a small island close to the mainland, have to pay blackmail to the Makua chiefs for leave to form a plantation, or build even a country house.

The actual position of the town may be well brought home to us by supposing London to stand where Cowes does on the Isle of Wight. The mainland is always visible, and many boats pass every day across to it.

Zanzibar is built on a sandy peninsula, in shape not unlike a shoe with a very long pointed toe, a shallow