During the American Civil War the American traders in Zanzibar lost
the commanding position in the commerce of the island that they had
maintained for many years. ¹ Shortages of trading goods and high costs
in the United States, plus the presence of Confederate raiders on the
routes to East Africa, placed the Americans there in a difficult position.
They had struggled to keep business alive, often importing their goods
in British ships, but, although their credit remained sound, trade had
seriously declined.

The recession of American interests did not last long, however. By
1867 their trade was recovering, in spite of heavy competition from In-
dian, British, German, French and other firms, and the American Consul,
E. D. Ropes, thought the trade of the United States would soon regain its
former magnitude. ²

The French representative in Zanzibar, writing independently, corrobo-
rated this picture of returning American prosperity. ³ And in a speech in
1869, a leading citizen in the town of Salem gave confirming evidence:
this Massachusetts center, he claimed, received a large percentage of the

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