ZANZIBAR. 1 9

of negro soldiers, with the aid of one of the officers

of H.M.S. London, and has armed them with breech-

loading rifles.

There is no distinctive coinage in Zanzibar, and

consequently an immense variety of coins pass

current there. In former times mtania, a species of

millet, was employed as small change, but some

thirty or forty years ago pice were introduced from

India, by one of our Consuls, and are now universally

used in the island and the towns of the coast opposite

Zanzibar. The rupee and anna are also largely

circulated in the island, besides which English,

French, and American coins are frequently met

with. English gold is always at a premium, and

when I was in Zanzibar in 1876, the sovereign was

worth about twenty-two shillings in silver. The

Maria Theresa dollar (the Abu Nuktar, Father of

dots, of Egypt), which is here called Fetha ya Sham,

is the principal coin in circulation, and is supposed

to be the standard of value, the price of goods and

servants' wages being always calculated in dollars ;

but the number of pice which will be given for one

of these coins varies according to the quantity of

pice in the market : when they are plentiful the

dollar, of course, is worth more than when they are

scarce ; the amount varying, under ordinary cir-

cumstances, from 112 to 140 pice per dollar. The

Mexican pillar dollar is also used, and is known as

Fetha ya mzinga, or the cannon dollar, the pillar on

c 2