3-078-270 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in British East Africa, 1890. 'The old Portuguese Fort at Mombasa...[which] bears the date (cut in stone over the main gate) of its erection by Xerxes de Cabreira, a.d. 1635...a most interesting and picturesque structure; daily prisoners taking a rest at midday outside the fort. They are sentenced to a week or so imprisonment for riotous conduct inside the fort, drunkenness, or theft...An iron collar is locked round each prisoner's neck, and all are joined by a chain, in which way they are forced to work, guarded by Arab soldiers, armed with a long gun; a Taita native chief from near the mountain of Kilimanjaro [who] had never before visited the coast or seen a sea-going vessel. He was clothed in a sort of cotton toga. His one weapon was a spear; house & church of the United Free Methodist Mission to the Wanika and Gala tribes, at Rebé; stockaded native village raided by the dreaded Masai tribe...not long ago the scene of a horrible butchery...The Masai are a fierce race, and a terror to all, because of their frequent raids on the cattle, sheep, and goats of the more peaceful tribes'. [From] sketches by Captain Robert Brereton, who has returned to England from a term of employment in the Imperial British East Africa Company'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.