Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

60 DHOW-CHASING.
evils I cliose the lesser; so looking into tlie water
as far as I could, to see that there were none of
the rascals close at hand, I dived from the boom,
and, with my eyes all round me while under
water and thinking every flash of light was a
hungry enemy, I came up underneath the wheel,
and was laughed at
unmercifully by Jones for
not striking out for it
at first.
From Mozambique we proceeded in company
with the " Dee " to the Portuguese settlement of
Ibo, which was now to form the chief rendezvous
for the boats; and from thence we were to cruise
northward between the Querimba Islands and
the main so far as Tongy Bay or Cape Delgado
from ninety to a hundred miles of coast;
but as
these islands were not considered so healthy as
the little sand-banks to the southward, we had
no head-quarters on shore, but were strictly confined
to the boats.
Before speaking more fully of the slave-trade
itself, I think it may be well to give some
further account of the cruise of the boats, and
also of the ships, so far as my own experience
is concerned, which I think presents