PEMBA  , an

island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, forming part of the sultanate of Zanzibar . Pemba lies 30 M . N.N.E. of Zanzibar island between 4° 8o' and 5° 30' S., and 390 35' and 390 50' E . It is some 40 M. long and 10 across at its broadest part, and has an area of 38o sq. m . It is of coral-line formation . On the side facing the mainland the coast is much indented . From its luxuriant vegetation it gets its Arabic name of Al-huthera—" The Green." The interior is diversified by hills, some of which exceed 600 ft . The land is chiefly owned by great Arab proprietors, who work their plantations with Swahili labour, and with negroes from the mainland . Prior to 1897 the labourers were all slaves . Their gradual manumission was accomplished without injury to the prosperity of the island . The population is estimated at between 50,000 and 6o,000, of whom 2000 to 3000 are Arabs . Most of the inhabitants are of Bantu stock, and are known as Wapemba .

In the ports there are many

Hindu traders and a few Europeans . The plantations are nearly all devoted to cloves (the annual average output being 10,000,000 lb) and coco-nut palms (for the preparation of copra) . The number of coco-nut plantations is very small compared with those devoted to cloves . Yet cloves need much care and attention and yield small profit, while the coco-nut palm yields a fairly uniform crop of nuts and will grow almost anywhere . The preponderance of clove plantations dates from a cyclone which in 1872 destroyed nearly all the clove-trees in the island of Zanzibar . Thereupon, to benefit from the great rise in the price of cloves, the Pemba planters cut down their palms and planted cloves . The value of the cloves exported in 1907 was £339,000, or 92% of the total exports . India, Germany and Great Britain are, in the order named, the chief purchasers . Other exports include fire-wood, skins and hides, mother-of-pearl, wax and small quantities of rubber, cowries, tortoiseshell and so-called tortoise-nail . The " tortoise-nail " is the valve with which a shell-fish closes its shell . The Llandolphia rubber-vine is indigenous, and since 1906 Ceara rubber-trees have been extensively planted . Rice, the chief of Pemba's imports, could easily be grown on the island .

Cotton cloths (Kangas) form the next most considerable item in the imports . Pemba has three ports, all on the west side of the island . Shaki-Shaki, the capital and the centre of trade, is centrally situated at the head of a shallow tidal creek partly blocked by dense growths of mangroves . Mkoani is on the south-west coast, Kishi-Kashi on the north-west coast; at the last-named port there is a deep and well-sheltered harbour, approached however by a narrow and dangerous channel . Pemba is administered as an integral part of the Zanzibar dominions, and yields a considerable surplus to the exchequer, mainly from a 25% duty imposed on cloves exported . There is a weekly steamship service to Zanzibar, and in 1907 the two islands were connected by wireless telegraphy (see ZANZIBAR) .