Page 184 - Gulf Precis (III)_Neat

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mainly due to operations directed by considerable land and sea forces of the East 1 d*
Company against the pirate nests in the Gulf, to the activity of the Bombay Marine” id
Indian Navy both in cruisers and surveying vessels, and to the growth of the compa.a\i*'y
civilised authority of the I main of Muscat, who, during the first 40 years of this cen • ry
built up a considerable Navy and became a conquering power on the East African Coast* ^
The Indian traders seem never to have quite forsaken the East African trade when it
was at its lowest, which was probably in the latter part of the last and earlier years of the
present century. A few ships made an annual voyage from Mandavie, in Cutch, and from
Surat, Bombay, and occasionally from other ports of the Katty war and Malabar Coasts
bringing ivory and other African produce, in exchange for cloth, metals, and beads; but
their return from what was then a most hazardous voyage was a great event at all the ports
to which they belonged, calculated, and watched for, as the season of fair winds came
round, and greeted, at Mandavie and all the smaller ports, by crowds assembled on the
shore, and by firing of guns and general rejoicing in the shipping and town.
While Surat and Guzerat had a large manufacture of blue cotton cloth, as late as 50
years ago, East Africa was the chief market for it; some, it was said, was carried by the
Portuguese to Brazil; but the greater part found a market in the interior of Africa. About
that time Captain Owen found a few Banians and Indians at every place of trade on the
coast, but the very small commerce they carried ou seems often to have struck him.
1 have met during my present visit to this coast few Indian houses which boast an
antiquity of more than 40 years. Some have told me that the usual system of trade in
former days was for a supercargo to deal from the ship; though there were always a few
Indian residents at each port where there was sufficient of a settled Government to make
their property secure. In Madagascar and elsewhere, the Indians assured me that though
their oldest house was not of more than 60 years' standing, their caste had traded to the
coast for ages previous.
During the past 40 years, the great Indian immigration to this coast has gone on at
a constantly increasing rate, which bids fair to restore the Indian trade with East Africa
to more than its old proportions. Many causes have contributed to this end—the general
peace in Europe, the final suppression of Arab piracy, the establishment of the Muscat
Arabs at Zanzibar and on the Coast, the appearance at Zanzibar and elsewhere of English,
French, German, and American houses ; and probably above all, the great impulse given
to Indian trade by the extinction of the Company’s monopoly, and by the vast development
of commercial enterprise, among those Indian castes which have heretofore almost mono­
polised this branch of commerce. I have been assured on good authority that the fresh
arrivals from India last year numbered more than 250 traders to Zanzibar and its neigh­
bourhood alone. For some of the Indian trading classes, trade in East Africa seems to
have the same charms as colonising has for some of our own countrymen at home.
Present Numbers and Classes.—It is difficult to arrive at exact conclusions as to the
total numbers of Indian traders on the East African Coast, but l am convinced that the
best official returns are considerably below the truth.
Vide Administration Report, July 1 Sth
1870. Dr. Kirk estimated the Indian traders connected with
Zanzibar in 1870 at 3,710 of all castes. His paper is so valuable that an extract of the portion
relating to these classes is annexed; but probably the returns at his disposal, chiefly
furnished by the Sultan's Farmer of Customs, gave only the residents at the principal ports,
or those who were known to the heads of the community at Zanzibar ; for we found at almost
every place we visited numbers considerably in excess of those he set down; and we
met them as long settled residents at many places omitted in his list, and were assured
of their residence at many more. It is possible that they may at some of these places
be late arrivals, or be included under the larger ceutres of trade entered in Dr. Kirk s
list of 1870. But there can, I think, he no doubt that the aggregate number is much
larger and that they are more widely scattered than would be supposed from that
return.
Each individual is generally an independent trader, or partner, or managing clerk in a
house of business, and few have families, so that their numbers in Zanzibar would represeu
in India a commercial community manifold more numerous.
Most of them belong to four or five of the great trading classes of Western India.
We met a few representatives of other castes, a few goldsmiths (Sonars),
(Guzerat Darzis), servants, such as cooks, washermen, etc., and two bards (bhats^) trave 1 g
to the extent to which the love of African travel has of late years possessed some ot e
moveable of Indian races.
All these, however, were rare exceptions, and the Indians we met were generally
Bhattias.
Loliana Wanias.
Khojas.
Mehmons or Bohras.
Bhattias and Banians.—The Bhattias are probably the most important by 1
and influence at Zanzibar, and with the Banians proper, or Lohauas, who are compara j
few in number, form the Hindu portion of the Indian community. The Bhattias are
of the very ancient skilful and important sub-divisions of the Hindu commercial castes,