coaltrimmer

Updated: May 24, 2025

An orphan in early youth, and becoming, to use his own phrase, sick of milk, he ran away from his tribe, the Habr Gerhajis, and engaged himself as a coaltrimmer with the slaves on board an Indian war- steamer. After rising in rank to the command of the crew, he became servant and interpreter to travellers, visited distant lands Egypt and Calcutta and finally settled as a Feringhee policeman.

Sir Richard Francis Burton - First Footsteps in East Africa