Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/497

KISMAYU.— BARDERA. 407 tion, lies not on the coast, but on the banks of a little stream wh.ch joins the Ozi over against Kau. Its port on tlie Indian Ocean is at Lamu, whose harbour is formed by a long deep channel flowing between the two islands of Lamu and Manda, and commanded by a large fort, where till recently was hoisted the flag of the Sultan of Zanzibar. Lamu, which some travellers report to have a population of some fifteen thousand, is now regularly visited by the steamers plying on the East African seaboard ; but the sandhills are already threatening to swallow up a part of the town. Other excellent havens are formed by the creeks which ramify between the islands of the archipelago. Such are the well-sheltered ports of Manda and Patta, where the ruins still lining the beach date back to times anterior to the arrival of the Portuguese. But whether they be Arab fortres-es, Persian or Hindu struc- tures, they are all alike equally avoided by Somali, Galla, and Swaheli as the abodes of evil pplrits. Patta especially was at one time a very flourishing place, with a large trading and industrial population. North of this island and of the Mto-Bubashi estuary is seen a striking example of the phenomenon of a double coastline, consisting of an outer barrier reef and the inner continental shore. In these waters every creek and channel gives access to a fine natural haven. KisMAYU — Brava. — Merka. Kistnayu, or Kisimayit, is the last anchorage on the Somali coast, going north- eastwards in the direction of Cape Guardafui, to which the terra port can be applied. But even this place is little used except as a harbour of refuge, so little developed is the movement of exchanges along this inhospitable seaboard. Never- theless, Kismayu is the natural outlet of the vast basin of the Juba, Mhich reaches the sea about 12 miles to the north-east. In 18G9 this town did not yet exist, but in that year some Somali emigrants from the Upper Juba Valley, and especially from the neighbourhood of Bardera, or Bal T/r, the chief market of the interior, established themselves at this favourable point of the coast, and opened direct commercial relations with Zanzibar. Later some members of the ^lijurtin tribe, the most energetic traders on the whole seaboard, also settled in the same place, the population of which had already risen to eight thousand six hundred in the year 1873. At that time the suzerainty of the Sultan of Zanzibar was represented in Kismayu by some Arab traders and a small Baluchi garrison. In 1870 a ^larseilles commercial house had hoisted the French flag in this port, but after the Ijattle of Sedan the Sultan of Zanzibar hastened to reassert his authority over the place. Bardera is inhabited by Mohammedans, who if not actualh' Wahabites, are fully as fanatical as those troublesome sectaries. They neither smoke nor take snufi", and display an almost rabid zeal in their efforts to enforce their peculiar views on the surrounding Somali populations. Hence insurrections, massacres, migrations of tribes, and disorders of all sorts. In the year 1845, the town of Bardera was utterly destroyed by the enraged inhabitants of the district, who slew