Note 71 — Chapter XI · TO KILWA, THE END OF THE EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION (1857–1859).

This is probably a confusion with the legend of Ali bin Hasan, the Shirazi chief, who, according to the ‘Kilwa Chronicle’ (De Barros, 1st Decade of Asia, viii. 4, 5), occupied Kilwa in our 11th century. There may have been a second emigration from Shangaya after the 14th century, but the tale of the cloth is suspicious. Cloth, however, has played everywhere upon this coast the part of gold and silver. Sofala was anciently a monopoly of Makdishu, which traded with it for gold on condition of sending every year a few young men to improve the ‘Kafir’ race, the latter highly valuing the comparatively white blood. A fisherman of Kilwa having been carried by the currents to the S. Eastern Gold Coast, reported this state of affairs to Daud, 10th Shirazi Sultan of Kilwa. This chief succeeded in getting the rich trade into his own hands by offering as many pieces of cloth as the youths sent by the people of Makdishu, and by also supplying emigrants to marry the daughters of the savages.