AFRICAN TRAVELS

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20551, 20 May 1932, Page 12

AFRICAN TRAVELS

♦ " . I I STRANGE SIGHTS IN EASTERN TOWNS. MR MURRAY FULLER'S TOUR. Impressions of his travels in Africa. notably on the cast coast from Cape Town to Abyssinia, were given to Tee Press yesterday by Mr E. Murray Fuller "who for a number of years has been taking exhibitions of the works of contemporary British artists into different parts of the world. Mr Fuller is now engaged in hanging his latest collection of paintings in the Art Gallery, where they will be open for inspection next Tuesday. Towards the end of 1930 he went to South Africa at, the invitation of the Trust of the National Gallery and exhibited a fine collection at the opening of the gallery in Cape Town. One of the best collections in the Empire of modern English and Trench paintings was housed in the gallery at Johannesburg, said Mr Fuller. This city, following the discovery of gold on the Band, had had an astounding growth during the past 40 years. It stood in the centre of the great Rand reef, from which gold valued at £47,000,000 was extracted every year. The wealthy people of Johannesburg, with a full sense of civic duty, had subscribed upwards of £200,000 towards the erection of an Art Gallery and the purchase of a collection of paintings. They \ commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to design the gallery, while Sir Hugh Lane toured Europe to buy the pictures. Sir Hugh, one of the soundest judges of the day, had gathered together, a most important collection of British and French paintings of the last century. While there were many fine galleries in South Africa, Mr Fuller did not think that the people generally were as interested in painting as the people of New Zealand, of-whose capacity for appreciation he has a high regard. A Road of Cannon-Bails. """Mozambique is a Portuguese penal settlement," continued Mr Fuller, discussing his tour of the East Coast, "and from the moment we arrived in a fishing dhow it gave us much to talk about and to think over. Mozambique was one of Vasco da Gama's strongholds in the late 15th century, and in 1508 he built the fort, which is now used as the prison, of stone carried 80Q0 miles from Portugal in the tiny ships of the period. "Perhaps the strangest road-making material in the world is used on the road entrance to the main gateway. This is constructed of hundreds of can-non-balls set in the natural coral. The old gateway itself, surrounded by luxuriant tropical vegetation, is most interesting; but it is not until one climbs to the top of the bastions, 35 feet high, and looks down on the ragged mass or prisoners below in the central courtyard , that the- horrors of the prison can be realised. There are many old cannons ' and neat piles of cannon-balls at internals round the buttresses, and one may snjoy' a sea-breeze from there, but in the prison-yard, .where we mixed with the motley crowd, the heat and smell ivere almost unbearable." The Sport of Bowls. The favourite sport among the prisoners appeared to be the old game of bowls. Played on a coralline prisonyard with cannon-balls of the 15th century, this game provided quite an unusual entertainment for the visitors. The most depressing sight was a prisoner in solitary confinement because, sitting behind bars, with a palm-leaf as a punkah, he was allowed a little dog for company. There/were two women among the mixed crowd, and Mr Fuller was told that they were to remain there for another 13 years (having served 15 years already) for murdering their husbands. Mi* Fuller mado a sketch of the gateway one evening, and this caused.some excitement among his mixed audience of criminals and warders. Many had their Wives and lady friends to see "the show,?' for painters in Mozambique were.scarce. I •' ■•'■:*-.': Sights of Zanzibar. • Mr Fuller had looked forward with the keenest interest to his visit to Zanzibar. He found it a fascinatihg island and a splendid field for painting. Anyone who had seen Oscar Asche's "Kismet" or "Chu Chin Chow'.' would have some conception of the bazaars of Zanzibar. Not 20 yards from where he stayed there was a little Arab shop with a beautifully carved doorway which was photographed and reproduced complete for one of the scenes in the first London production of "Chi; Chin Chow." Old Arab fruit-seHers had been sitting in' this door-way foi more than half a century, and stil salaamed with dignity whenever a white sahib passed by. This , scene lookec almost too theatrical to look genuine; even the long white beards of the old men seenied to have been fastened on with spirit gum. 1 The scent of Ifche spice : laden air was a constant reminder that Zanzibar ii the most important spice island of the East. It lived and prospered on cloves producing nine-tenths of the world's supply. The clove trees grew to aboul 25 feet in height, and a drive througl the North clove shambas (plantations) was always a pleasure. The clove, as housewives knew it, was actually the bud, which Jtvas picked before it broke into bloom, and was reminiscent to the New Zealander of the manuka. Visit to Somaliland. Mr Fuller said he always found it difficult to stop talking about the many beauties of Zanzibar—its sunsets, flowers, butterflies, f ruit r and paradise humming birds. At Kedichi, one oi the highest points on the island, were to be seen the lovely decorations and carvings in the Persian baths built by the Sultan Seyyid Said for his Persian princess wife, who arrived oh the island with a laTge suite, including her own | private executioner. The famous carved doors of Zanzibar were being preserved, and a law had been passed preventing their exportation. Mr Fuller then travelled up the east coast to Italian Somaliland, of which the chief towns are Merka and Mogidishu. This particular part of East Africa has been settled by Italians only during the last four years. An important irrigation scheme has been undertaken, and already it is claimed that the land will produce the finest cotton in the world. The town of Merka is protected against lions by an old wall. It is peopled by Arabs and Somalis, the latter an exceptionally fine type of African native. Mr Fuller saw many parts of this district which had been untouched by civilisation. He saw, too, many slaves being shipped on dhows at Djibouti for Arabia.