Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/409

ISLAND OF MAFIA. 827 two other islands also lying at a short distance from the mainland, and also resting on rocky coralline reefs. Mufia, Zanzibar, and Pcmba, are either the remains, or possibly the first foundation stones, as it were, of a future continent, developing beyond the inner an outer coastline almost everywhere presenting precipitous buttresses to the fury of the breakers rolling in from the deep. All three islands are disposed exactly in the same direction as the coast of the opposite mainland. Thus the axis of Mafia is inclined from south-west to north-east, like the neiglibouring shore between the Rovuma delta and the ras or headland of Mwamba Mku. Zanzibar in the same way runs south-east and north-west, parallel with the seaboard between Dar-es-Salaam and Saadani, while Pemba, like the con- tiguous continental shore-line, follows the direction from north to south, with a slight inclination towards the east. The great oceanic depths do not begin till some distance off the windward side of the islands. On the west or landward side the reefs are very nimierous, some strewn over the bed of the sea, and at low water resembling the reinains of another " Giant's Causeway," some always awash or completely flooded, and endangering the navigation along the line of tortuous channels open to shipping. The most dreaded section of these waters lies between the island of Mafia and the Rufiji delta, where the turbid fluvial stream spreading over the surface of the heavier marine layers prevents the pilots from seeing the submerged reefs and shoals. Hence skippers never attempt to venture through this passage at night, and most vessels avoid it altogether by keeping on the east side of the island in the deep s aters of the open sea. The Zanzibar channel is broader and deeper than that of Mafia ; nevertheless at one point it is contracted to a space of little over three miles, or about one-fifth of the whole distance from shore to shore. In mid-channel vessels ride at anchor in some 20 or 22 fathoms of water. Mafia, called also Monfia, southernmost of the three islands, is also the smallest in extent, as well as the least important in population and natural resources. The original coral reef, about 200 square miles in superficial area, is now almost completely covered with a layer of fertile soil supporting a large number of cocoanut palms. The island is continued southwards by an extensive reef strewn with upheaved rocks, on one of which stands the village of Chohe, capital of Mafia, and residence of the governor and of a few Arab and Hindu traders. The surrounding district is well cultivated but does not yield sufficient produce to support any considerable export trade. In any case the creek on which Chobe stands is scarcely accessible at low water, so that shipping has to anchor j«t a distance of 9 miles to the south-west of the island. Zanzibar, the native name of which is Unguya, or the " Station," is the only land in East Africa whose usual designation still recalls the ancient Zcnj people described by the mediaeval Arab writers as inhabiting the section of the seaboard which stretched south of Somaliland towards the unknown southern waters. The expression " Zanguebar coast," till recently applied to the coastlands comprised between Mombaz and Eiloa, and now transferred under a corrupt form to the