Zanzibar: City, Island, and Coast

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...