Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

THE CEUISE OF THE "DAPHNE." 171
board, to proceed with us to Bombay.
On the
next morning, the "Star" and ourselves captured
two slavers, ours having eighteen slaves,
hers six. We then parted company and steered
for the northward, with the intention of going
to Aden to land the negroes, and condemn
the prizes, but were unable to get farther
than
4° 36' north latitude, where we met the current
that always precedes the monsoon about a month,
and as
the south-west monsoon had now nearly
ceased, it did not reach so far north at this time
of the year; we consequently found ourselves
with 322 negroes on board, and only ten tons
of coals left, drifting a knot an hour southward
in the belt of calms that exists on the coast at
this time of the year for about two months and
extends for several degrees to the eastward;
we therefore at first altered our com^se for
Seychelles, with the intention of landing
the negroes there, obtaining coal, and then
going to Bombay, but we soon found this
impracticable, as by the 18 th November we
had drifted so far down the coast, as to leave
no alternative but to steer for Zanzibar. We
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