Zanzibar. By Major F. B. Pearce. (T. Fisher Unwin. 30s.
net.)—The British Resident at Zanzibar has written an admirable history and description of the Sultanate, including Pemba. He shows that the islands have always been important trading stations. They were more easily defended than the Ports on the neighbouring African coast, and therefore were frequented by Indian, Persian, Chinese and Arab traders from the earliest times. Major Pearce is the first, so far as we know, to describe in detail the principal ruined cities in Pemba and Zanzibar, the earliest of which were built by a civilized Moslem people, accustomed to wor in atone, at least a thousand years ago. Their houses and forts are dated by the fragments of early Chinese oeladon built into the masonry. Probably these
early settlers were Persians ; that once virile race has left traces of its activity in the very heart of desert Arabia, and may well have visited Zanzibar. A century ago Zanzibar was a centre of the slave trade and occasioned us infinite trouble. The author emphasizes the importance of the Indian Moslem community, ten thousand strong, which controls most of the local trade. The Arabs, who are no more numerous, constitute the land-owning class. The working population of Swahilis is a mixed negro race. Major Pearce hints that the clove, the main export of the two islands, is being displaced by the coco-nut palm, which is easier to grow. The book is very well illustrated and has a good map.
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