Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

THE CRUISE OP THE "PANTALOON." 103
barges, built with the strips of the bark of a
tree sewn close together with thongs of hide,
and rudely caulked with rags or cotton;
they draw only a few inches of water when
light, and are purely a native craft built high
up the rivers by the negroes, and owned and
manned by them alone; they convey ivory
and gum down the coast towards the close of
the south-west monsoon, when the weather is
particularly fine, which enables them to go outside
the rivers for some considerable distance
along the coast, and return again with the light
north-east monsoon ; their sail is as primitive
as their hull, consisting of a square straw mat,
suspended to a pole or yard hoisted to the mast
by a rope of the same material; one hand has
to be continually employed baling them out, or
they would soon fill and sink ; for want of this
precaution we one night, when at anchor off"
Brava, in the " Daphne," nearly lost one of
them which had been made fast astern, and contained
about ten or twelve tons of ivory, cobal,
and gum : at daylight she was observed to be
half full of water and on the point of sinking,