10 UGANDA AND TEE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

merchants, and here, book in hand, may be seen

their Parsee clerks checking off the bales of goods

as they arrive from the steamers. It being now

the close of the clove harvest, in every corner of the

yard are huge piles of matting bags full of this

fragrant spies, filling the air with its aromatic

smell, in pleasing contrast to the odours from the

beach close by, which are not exactly suggestive of

the " isles of the blessed."

Turning our backs on the custom-house, and pro-

ceeding along the beach, we pass under the black

muzzles of the saluting battery, where a few filthy Balooch soldiers, clad in soiled and tattered uni-

forms, are lounging about. Along the shore are

a few dhows embarking goods and passengers for

the mainland. Leaving these we pass the various

consulates, the English consul-general's house being the most imposing and having the best situation; then we reach Shangani Point, which is slowly

disappearing beneath the waves of the Indian

Ocean. Beyond Shangani Point is another har-

bour, or rather roadstead, where powder-ships lie when discharging their cargoes. Turning into the

town at this place, we pass through one of the

quarters inhabited by negroes. The houses here

are of wattle-and-daub, with sloping thatched roofs,

which are very inflammable, and fires are of fre-

quent occurrence among them ; the houses stand

close together, with crooked, filthy lanes between.