Zanzibar
City, Island, and Coast

This two-volume memoir of 1872 chronicles Burton and Speke's 1857–9 expedition to find the source of the Nile.

Richard Francis Burton (Author)

9781108031462, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2011

542 pages, 4 b/w illus. 5 maps
21.6 x 14 x 3.1 cm, 0.68 kg

First published in 1872, this two-volume memoir by explorer, ethnographer and diplomat Sir Richard Burton (1821–90) was written while Burton and John Hanning Speke were making preparations for their expedition to solve one of the major geographical mysteries of the nineteenth century - the location of the source of the Nile. The pair arrived in Zanzibar in December 1856, and Burton made detailed notes on his surroundings which were developed into Volume 1, which focuses on 'The City and the Island', including Burton's journey preparations and arrival. He discusses the significance of the 'Nile question' as well as recording geographical, botanical, meteorological and ethnographic observations. The manuscript on which the book is based, entrusted to an East India Company official for dispatch to the Royal Geographical Society, was initially misplaced, thus delaying publication by twelve years, but enabling Burton to add a chapter on Speke's achievement and untimely death.

Preface
1. Prepatory
2. Arrival at Zanzibar Island
3. How the Nile question stood in the year of grace 1856
4. A stroll through Zanzibar City
5. Geographical and physiological
6. Visit to the Prince Sayyid Majid. The government of Zanzibar
7. A chronicle of Zanzibar. The career of the late 'Imam' Sayyid Said
8. Ethnology of Zanzibar. The foreign residents
9. Horseflesh at Zanzibar. The outskirts of the city, and the clove plantations
10. Ethnology of Zanzibar. The Arabs
11. Ethnology of Zanzibar. The Wasawihili and the slave races
12. Preparations for departure
Appendix. The Ukara or Ukerewe Lake.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]