actuated, and of a zeal for God which, if not according to knowledge, was a zeal still, and a sincere one. It was painful to me, at the time, to think, how few relics, if the English were now expelled from India, would be left behind of their religion, their power, or their civil and military magnificence." "1 During the forty years which have elapsed since the late lamented Heber penned these lines, a great advance has been made in our own civil and political status in India, and much has undoubtedly been done to improve the secular and intellectual condition of the people generally; but as regards the diffusion of our religion among the natives, how insignificantly little has been effected, especially when compared with the profuse and expensive machinery which for the last century has been set in motion to that end!

I would be understood as alluding to this subject in its purely human point of view, and wholly apart from all supernatural or Divine affinities; but even under that aspect, the reflections which it is calculated to evoke deserve the serious consideration of such as believe that Christianity alone can regenerate India, and particularly of those who, whether in this country or on the spot, are engaged in promoting its extension among our fellow-subjects in that vast continent.

To discuss this interesting topic more fully would be foreign to a work like the present, and perhaps an apology is due for the foregoing intrusion of it. Readily granting the same, I return again to the narrative of our Europe-bound traveller.

1 Bishop Heber's Journal, vol. iii. p. 91.

After a course of "about three thousand miles" from Cannanore, the San Vincenzo reached Mozambique on the east coast of Africa, or, as the country was then called, "Ethiopia." They saw "many lands" on the way, where the King of Portugal held strong fortresses, but whether they landed at those places or not is uncertain. Varthema enumerates Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwah, Sofâla, Paté, and Brâva, but omits all mention of Mukdîshu and Lâmu on the continent, and the adjacent islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, which latter is called by the Arabs Jezîrat el-Khadhrâ, or the Green Island. Most of these localities had been captured by the Portuguese before our author's arrival, and several of them were well garrisoned. The conciliatory policy adopted by Vasco de Gama when he first visited this coast in 1498 had been reversed by his successors, whose arrogant pretensions, inspired by a thirst after gold and conquest, soon brought them into collision with the inhabitants, who were eventually obliged to succumb to the superior arms of the invaders. Almost all the places above-mentioned were at this period in the hands of the Arabs, whose original settlements on the coast must have taken place at a very early period. Eschewing the knotty question of the locality of the Scriptural "Ophir," which some have attempted to identify with Sofâla, and whether Solomon was supplied with "ivory, apes, and peacocks," by Arab traders between Eziongeber and the east coast of Africa, the reader will find in the following quotation from the researches of Dr. Krapf a valuable

summary of the more authentic history of these foreign colonists.-

"It is well known that the Muhammedan Arabs, during the first period of their history, for 150 years, overran a large section of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and that soon after the death of their prophet Muhammed they fell a prey to political and religious dissensions, and the defeated party resolved to abandon the land of their birth. Where was a better home to be found than the fruitful strand of Eastern Africa? There they were already known, and would be safe from the pursuit of their fanatical conquerors. It seems that the first settlements of the kind were made in various points of the East-African coast in the year 740 by the Emosaids, or adherents of Said, a great grandson of Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-law. Said, proclaimed Caliph by the rebels, was defeated and slain, on which his adherents were obliged to seek safety in flight, and it was in East Africa that they found refuge. In the works of various Arabian historians and geographers, for several centuries afterwards, we find interesting notices of these Arab settlements. From all these notices it is to be gathered, that the Muhammedan Arabs founded political and religious states or towns in Eastern Africa, and that their migration to that country was sometimes voluntary, sometimes forced upon them. Among these Arabian states or towns the most prominent are: Mukdîshu, Kilwah, Brâva, Malindi, and Mombâsa. Mukdîshu was supreme in the north, while Kilwah was queen of the south, from Zanzibar to Sofâla. With the declining power of these two states and towns, Malindi and Mombâsa, situated midway between them, appear to have increased in influence and importance. Mukdîshu seems to have been founded between A.D. 909-951; and Kilwah between A.D. 960-1000. It is likely from the narrative of the famous Ibn Batûta,1 I [See LEE's Translation, pp. 55-57.]

who visited Mombâsa about A.D. 1330, that the Wanîka [a native tribe] had not then settled in the vicinity of the

coast.

"These Arabian cities and communities were prosperous, and in some degree civilized; but they were deficient in military organization. They had not been founded by conquerors, but by traders, emigrants, and exiles, who behaved peaceably to the natives, and so developed and established their influence slowly, but at the same time more surely. They were pacific colonists, and by the trade and commerce which they originated, the natives of the interior could not but recognize the advantage of peaceful intercourse with the strangers, and be glad of their presence. But the Arabs were not to remain for ever in exclusive possession of the knowledge, the commerce, and the power of Eastern Africa, -a possession which would have led them to rule and to convert the whole of Southern Africa. Providence interposed, and at the right time led into those waters and to that coast a Christian power, to check the progress and weaken the influence of Muhammedanism."

The subsequent domination of this "Christian " power, and its baneful results, are thus described :

"In East Africa, Portugal enriched herself by levying tribute and taxes, in addition to her enormous gains from the gold-mines of Sofâla; but East Africa received nothing in return. She ruled the East-Africans with a rod of iron, and their pride and cruelty had their reward in the bitter hatred of the natives. In Eastern Africa, the Portuguese have left nothing behind them but ruined fortresses, palaces, and ecclesiastical buildings. Nowhere is there to be seen a single trace of any improvement effected by them. No wonder that the Portuguese rule was of short duration, and that it fell as quickly as it had risen. John IV. had, indeed, restored independence to Portugal in 1640; but he could no longer save his colonies. In 1620, Portugal had already

lost the island of Hormuz, and its loss was the more felt, because it gave the Arabs of Omân courage and leisure to extend and to strengthen their influence in the Persian Gulf and in Eastern Africa. Portugal had no longer men like Albuquerque, capable of of their country in those seas. and incapable. In India and its waters, England and Holland had appeared, and with their appearance the star of Portugal had to sink to the horizon."

restoring the fallen influence All were now alike corrupt

Some idea of the hostile relations which existed between the Portuguese and the natives towards the middle of the seventeenth century, may be gathered from an inscription over the gateway leading into the fortress of Mombâsa. I had not time to transcribe it during my short stay at that island in December 1860, but relied on a copy in my possession, which I believe was taken by Dr. Krapf. The following is a translation of the original Portuguese :

66

"In 1635, Chief Captain Francisco de Xeixas de Cabreira, aged 27 years, after having commanded this fortress for four years, rebuilt it, and raised this corps-de-garde. And he reduced into submission to His Majesty the coast of Malindi, where a tyrant king had sprung up, and made the kings of Tondo, Mandra, Lazieva, and Jaca, tributaries. He also visited Paté and Sio with a punishment never before witnessed in India, levelling the walls thereof to the ground. He imposed a fine on the Muzungulos, and punished Pemba and its rebel people, killing the petty king, who had been set up by them and by others of note, obliging the Pariahs to pay to His Majesty the tribute which they had evaded for years. For these services, he was raised to the dignity of Fidalgo of His Majesty's Household, having previously received, for other similar services, the decoration of the Knight of the Order of Christ, an annuity of a thousand Reis, and six years' tenure