Strolling through Bagamoyo's narrow unpaved streets or sitting at the port watching dhows load up, it's easy to let your imagination slip back to the 19th century when this was one of the most important settlements along the East African coast. Slaves, ivory, salt and copra were unloaded at the port before being shipped to Zanzibar and elsewhere, and many European explorers, including Richard Burton, Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, began and ended their trips here.