Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

74 DHOW-CHASING.
Zanzibar lias so greatly increased in importance,
commercially, since tliat time, that any
description of it would be out of place liere :
suffice it to say that then, as at present, tlie
water was abominable, and it was that obtained
at this and other places on the coast, that subsequently
spread dysentery through the ship
with fatal results. The Imaum of Muscat, to
whom the island belonged, was there at this
time. The usual civilities were exchanged, and
the undeviating custom among the Arabs of
giving and accepting presents gone through,
the Commodore receiving a very handsome
Arab horse from his Highness, which remained
on board for nine months, until the ship returned
to the Cape, by which time it could do
everything but smoke a pipe, and it is not
certain that in another month it would not have
done that too, for there were many efforts on
remember, until our return to Bombay, after giving leave
to the men. We had been nearly two years in commission,
and six months of that was spent in the Red
Sea, where, however, nothing but condensed water was
used.