ZANZIBAR. 1 9 of negro soldiers, with the aid of one of the officers of H.M.S. London, and has armed them with breechloading 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 circumstances, 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