The Island of Zanzebar is about forty-five miles in
length, and fifteen in breadth. It has an excellent harbour on the western shore abreast of the town, with good anchorage in ten fathoms water, which is capable of holding a great number of vessels in perfect security throughout the year, owing to an extensive range of surrounding shoals, which break the force of the sea in every direction. The island is difficult of approach on account of a very strong current running in its neighbourhood, against which Captain Thomlinson, attempting to bear with a leading wind, lost twenty miles per day. The eastern shore is bold and woody, and as the hills seldom rise to any great elevation, the sea breeze holds an uninterrupted course over the island, which renders the climate tolerably healthy, notwithstanding its vicinity to the equator.
The inhabitants are Mahomedans of Arab extraction, under the rule of a Sheik, appointed by the Imaum of Muscat, to whom the jurisdiction of the island belongs, which was said in the years 1807-8 to have yielded a revenue of from thirty to forty thousand Spanish dollars per annum, arising almost entirely from an extinsive trade carried on with the Isles of France, Madagascar, and the Arabian Gulph. The exports consisted of slaves, gums, ivory, antimony, blue vitriol, and senna; and in return, the French supplied Zanzebar with arms, gunpowder, cutlery, coarse Indian cloths, and Spanish dollars. Dows or grabs of two hundred tons burthen are built on the island, which is well calculated for a small naval station, as the ebb and flow of the tide in the harbour exceeds twelve feet.
The Sheik has under his command about one hundred native troops, chiefly employed in the regulation of the police; but the island is said to be in a very defenceless state. It is well wooded, plentifully supplied with water, and abounds in excellent pasturage. The only grains cultivated are juwarry and rice, which, as in Arabia, form the principal food of the inhabitants. Other provisions are very abundant. An ox sells for only five dollars, a
Racehorse, who visited Zanzebar in this same year; and from the accounts of two Arab traders who had frequented the islands.
