ABSTRACT
IT was not to be expected that such a time-hallowed institution as the Slave Trade would disappear at a stroke of the pen. Barghash's authority over the sheikhs of the mainland was merely nominal. Nevertheless he, for his part, kept his word. His alliance with Britain was cemented by a visit to this country in 1875, where he was induced to remark “Why didn't you knock me on the head when I first refused to sign the treaty?” For the next ten years of his reign he and Kirk lived on the terms of the closest friendship at Zanzibar, and life proceeded smoothly enough until the sudden German irruption into East African politics.
