20 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

the coins being supposed to resemble a cannon. The

multiplicity of coins is very puzzling at first to a

traveller, and it is often no easy matter for him to

ascertain the relative value of each.

There is, considering the size of the island, a

tolerably large trade, and one which is ever in-

creasing, carried on between Zanzibar and Europe and America. Cotton goods, prints, handkerchiefs,

beads, brass and copper wire, arms, ammunition, and Birmingham goods are imported by the English and American houses there. The trade in the first-

mentioned article (cotton goods) is almost entirely in

the hands of the Americans, very little of the un-

bleached calico (" domestics "

is, I believe, the proper term for it) which constitutes the principal article of

barter in the interior of Africa being imported from

England ; indeed, the name by which it is universally known is merikani, from the country where it is

manufactured. The beads, which, next to merikani, form the most important article of barter, are for

the most part of Venetian manufacture, and are

imported direct from Venice. Switzerland, India,

Persia, and Muscat supply various kinds of cloth

used in the trade carried on with the interior ; while the trade in gunpowder, which is a monopoly of the Sultans, is carried on almost entirely with

Germany. The exports consist of cloves, which are

largely cultivated in the island, cocoanuts, cinnamon,

pepper, cocoanut oil, ivory, gum copal, orchilla weed,