Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar; Zanzibar -- Description and travel
Outline of the elements of the Ki-suaheli language, 8vo, Tübingen, 1850.
Vocabulary of 6 East-African languages, small folio, Tübingen, 1850.
Mr Erhardt’s vocabulary of the Enguduk Iloigob or Masai tongue, 8vo,
Ludwigburg, 1857.
Besides these there are (1860) in MSS., 1. the entire New Testament
(Kisawahili). 2. A complete Dictionary of Ki-suahili. 3. The Gospel
according to St Matthew (Kikamba). 4. Matthew and Genesis in Galla, &c.,
&c., &c.
Dr Krapf’s last work, a relation historique, appeared in 1860 (Travels,
Researches, and Missionary Labours, &c., &c., with an Appendix by Mr P.
G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S. London, Trübner and Co.). I venture to suggest
that he might reprint with great advantage to African students his
various journals, scattered through the numbers of the ‘Church
Missionary Intelligencer.’ We want them, however, printed textually,
with explanatory notes embodying subsequent information.
Meanwhile the difficulties of East African exploration were complicated
by a terrible disaster. M. Maizan, an Ensigne de Vaisseau, resolved to
explore the inner lake regions viâ the Zanzibar coast, and in 1844 his
projects were approved of by his government. After the rains of 1845 he
landed at the little settlement Bagamoyo, and when barely three days
from the seaboard, he was brutally murdered at the village of Dege la
Mhora, by one P’hazi Mazungéra, chief of the Wakamba, a sub-tribe of the
Wazaramo. The distinguished hydrographer Captain Guillain was sent in
the brig of war Le Decouëdic, to obtain satisfaction for this murder,
and the following sentence concludes his remarks upon the subject (Chap.
1, pp. 17-20); ‘Tout ce que je veux, tout ce que je dois me rappeler de
Maizan, c’est qu’il était intelligent, instruit, courageux, et qu’il a
péri misérablement à la fleur de l’âge (æt. 26) au début d’une
enterprise ou il aurait pu rencontrer la gloire.’ I have also described
(Lake Regions of Central Africa, 1. Chap. 3), from information collected
on the spot, the young traveller’s untimely end; and it is still my
opinion that the foul murder was caused more or less directly by the
Christian merchants of Zanzibar. Dr Krapf’s account of the catastrophe
(Travels, p. 421) abounds in errors. Captain Guillain was also sent on a
kind of bagman’s tour, a hawker carrying echantillons of French cloth
and other produce offered to the Arab market. Mayotta having been ceded
in 1841 by the Sakalawa chief, Andrian Souli, to the French government,
which occupied it militarily in 1843, the first idea was to make of it a
second and a more civilized Zanzibar. The coasting voyages and a few
short inland trips were thought worthy of being published in three bulky
volumes (Documents sur l’Histoire, la Géographie, et la Commerce de
l’Afrique Orientale, recuellis et rédigés par M. Guillain, &c.; publiés
par ordre du Gouvernement. Paris, Bertrand). The additions to Captain
Owen’s survey are unimportant, but the French officer has diligently
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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