Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

160 DHOW-CHASING.
Suddenly we found ourselves amongst tlie
breakers. A sea struck us abaft, and washed
clean over the boat from stem to stern; and
she must have broached-to if it had not been
for the weight of two of us on the yoke line.
Then another sea struck us, and then another,
washing over the whole length of the boat and
every one in it; but owing to her admirable
construction, the
seas went out over the bows,
leaving only a few inches of water in her. In a
few minutes we were over the bar, and inside it
was comparatively smooth. But how was it
possible ever to get out again? was the first
thought that struck me, as I never saw worselooking
breakers, not even at Buff'alo Mouth *
or
Algoa Bay.
They extended the whole length of
the coast for many miles, and from the inside
we saw what they really were.
When on shore
we found we were too late to rescue many of
the slaves; we, however, found seven little
wretched children from five to eight years of
1 Where we lost twenty-one men in four months, during
the Kaffir war, of those attached to the Naval Brigade,
including seven belonging to the " Castor."