Britishiloa ] 43 ZANZIBAR Agency at Zanzibar . In 1868 he became Assistant Political Agent, and in 1873 he was raised to the rank of Consul-General. Thanks to him , up to the time of Germany's intervention in 1884-5 , British influence was paramount at Zanzibar. Under Bargash Zanzibar maintained its position as the capital of Negro Africa and became the gate of civilization for Eastern Equatorial Africa, and the focusfor all exploring and missionary work in the interior. Its language, Swahili, became the language of Central African trade, and penetrated everywhere on the lines of the trade routes, which radiated from and converged upon Zanzibar. A lively interest came to be taken in the island and its Sultan by both the British and the Indian Govern ments. Towards the end ofthe period a more ominous cause of such interest made its appearance in the shape of German ambitions. The determining factors in the relations of Great Britain'with Zanzibar may now be briefly described .

( 1 ) Trade. — Direct British trade with the do minions of the Sultan was never very lively, and was exceeded in amount by German, American, and French together. The Germans , too, were the first to send steamers direct to the East African coast. But all European trade , even when stimulated by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, was of infinitesimal propor tion compared with that of the Indian merchants, both Hindu and Mohammedan, known comprehensively as Banians." For the forty years before Sir Bartle Frere's Mission in 1873 Indian immigration had gone on at a constantly increasing rate. Their silent occu pation of the coast from Sokotra to Cape Colony," wrote Frere , “ is one of the most curious things I know ." Their monopoly of trade on Zanzibar was prac tically complete. All European merchants employed them as agents and intermediaries. In 1870 their numbers on Zanzibar alone were reckoned as 3,710 ,and the amount of British Indian capital invested there was over a million and a halfpounds. It was only the trade with the interior which remained in Arab and [3918 ] E 66 a