Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

182 DHOW-CHASING.
in all, from various diseases, sixteen negroes,
and there were fourteen more ill with smallpox,
besides five of our own crew, and owing to
the number of negroes ^
on board, and the sickness
among them, it produced such an effect
upon the health of the ship's company that we
had as many as thirty-five besides on the
sicklist,
being the largest number we had had
during our commission; the average number
being about five or six.
I will now relate a few specimens of the
answers to questions put by Mr. Churchill and
myself to these Africans.
We sent for them one by one and questioned
them through the interpreter.
^
If the Arab passengers and crews of these slave dhows
had been retained on board, it would have added upwards
of 100 more to the number of souls on board. Some of
these Arabs would have required guarding. How we should
have fed them, and how far the additional crowding would
have accelerated or increased the disease on board, is an
experience yet to be purchased. At this time, however, it
was not compulsory, but rested with the Ai'abs themselves,
who invariably desired to be landed, knowing that it would
be useless to return to Zanzibar before the next season.
Indeed it would have been a punishment to take them back.