at Sana from the very remotest time. Sana is mentioned in the Bible as Uzal: perhaps these Jews may be the Racabites. Mocha was formerly a dependency of the Imaum of Sana's, who appointed a doula to the government; and, from the extensiveness of the coffee trade, was considered the richest port of that prince's dominions. The present government of Mocha is composed of a Bey, and his deputy, called kahia, with a garrison of 1,500 Egyptian troops of the line. Mahomed Ali's rule here, as elsewhere in the Hedjas and Yemen, is to grasp as much as possible, totally disregarding the improvement of the people or the country. Each article of commerce or consumption is heavily taxed; the coffee trade is wholly monopolized by his agents; and the only merchants that can in any way profit by this trade, are those who are protected by our Government, the duty on goods imported by British merchants being but three per cent, while those of any other country pay seven, and at times is raised to ten. The native agent, paid by the East-India Company, is considerably involved in trade; in consequence of which, the influence he possesses, and the protection he affords to British subjects, is spoken of by the people here, as very much prejudiced by his own interests. The ability of native agents to afford protection to our travellers, now they have become so numerous, and likely to be more so when the steam-communication is permanently established, is very questionable. Sheikh Tybe, the agent, has a house a short distance from the town, and, with several other summer retreats of the rich merchants, stands in a grove of date-palms. We spent some part of the day here; but in spite of the shelter afforded by the trees, we found the heat and glare intolerable. Our host behaved to us with great kindness, and dinner was served in the European fashion, upon a table, with knives and forks; an unlooked-for advancement in this strange land. In the evening we visited the governor, Amin Bey, who received us very cordially. We found him seated upon a chair, his legs " à la Européene," smoking from a silver nargcila, or water-pipe. He rose as we entered the room, and, with great politeness, offered us the chair he had been sitting upon; and clapping his hands, a couple of servants entered with other chairs, on which he invited us to sit. Coffee and pipes were quickly brought, and he very civilly inquired after our healths. I must say, I was rather surprised at all this refinement. Although I had travelled much in Asia, I had never met a Turk so well-bred and Europeanised. Amin Bey was a Georgian by birth, a slave of Mahomed Ali, in whose service, from the menial office of pipe-bearer, he had risen to the high rank of Bey and governor, with a salary of £3,000 a year, besides other large emoluments. His complexion was fair and clear, and expressive of great sweetness and amiability. The intelligence and good sense he evinced in his questions to us were really astonishing, considering that he had lived in camps all his life; and the bruised arms hung up around the apartment showed he had not yet done with the trade of war. A Turk has no library—no book but the Koran. He showed us several charts of the interior of Yemen, which had been drawn up under his directions, and dwelt particularly upon the exploratory expedition, Lieut. Wellsted had planned with him to examine these provinces. There was no display of servants or armed followers, nor during our visit were we surrounded by fiercelooking soldiers, with long, sun-burnt mustachios, armed with pistols, yatagans, &c. There was merely a servant at the house-door, before which a sentry paced to and fro, dressed in a short jacket, carrying a musket and bayonet. What a change is Turkey undergoing! The old régime of the Mustafas and Mahomeds is gone, and with it all those fierce characters that surrounded an Eastern despot; and our Arabian-Night fancies of fine shawl dresses, and handsome bearded Turks, are now only to be found in the far East. The modern Turk, in his tight small-clothes, looks a miserable creature; and when brought in close contrast with the remains of the haughty race, who still wear their fine becoming robes of gay colours, certainly sinks very much in the appearance of the outward man. In conclusion, I must say, our visit to Amin Bey excited no more idea of an audience of an Eastern despot, than would a morning call in Portland Place. The Arabs we met in the streets, those who had visited the town for purchases, appeared to be a very fine-looking race of men, though in appearance quite distinct from those met with in the deserts" the Arabs, the sons of Arabs," as they fondly style themselves. The country of Tehama is mountainous, and consequently colder and more fertile than other parts of the peninsula. These Arabs have evidently not been subjected to the same hardship and exposure as have their brethren, the true sons of Ishmael. As these, the children of Jochton, bore not the evidence of the hard mode of living the others do; their bodies were more square, and of stouter limb, their complexion fairer, and their countenances more smiling and pleasing. The women of these tribes are particularly fair and comely, showing from beneath their chudders fine rounded arms and well-shapen ancles. They all wear masks of black linen, having two holes in it, through which the eyes just appear, “clear, dark, and sparkling;" but this is all the picture of lovely woman an infidel can hope to see in Mocha-she is a shrouded form to him. On the 25th of May, we took a passage in a small Surat ketch, which was to sail on the morrow for Jidda. Ten dollars was the passage-money, for which the naquedah engaged to provide us with room to lie down in the great cabin, wood and water, and to allow one of the crew to cook our meals. In the evening we embarked. After a good tug at our anchor, we were away. The main-topsail of our craft was loosed. To our utter astonishment, as it spread open to the breeze, we observed it to be completely in tatters-just as a vessel's sail appears when riddled by round shot. We pointed this out to the captain (naquedah), who was a Surtee by birth. "Oh," said he, "the holes act as doors, and that sail has stood fifteen years without being a bit the worse:" "Derwaza hi Sahb; pone jainga is ke wasta na totinga pundera bras ise." The night was dark and gloomy; after smoking a few segars, we spread our mats, and laid down on the deck of the cabin. Seven Surat merchants, every man with his venture, occupied this abode, besides ourselves. We slept the night through-and who does not when he has a hard plank for a bed? In the morning, I found myself stowed amongst about two dozen pilgrims, tattered and torn, who had sought shelter in the cabin from the dew of heaven.* We now looked around us, as it was the first time we had been able to examine minutely either the vessel or our companions--and strange they were. The wind was still fair, and our crazy craft tumbled along before the gale at the rate of three miles an hour. So much, thought I, for the doors in the sails. This morning we were off Jebel Zigger, "the isles of prayer." Our prayers were offered up in great solemnity. The pilgrims prayed; and those who were too infirm to go through their usual genuflexions, repeated the thousand and one names of the Creator, and his many mercies, upon their The dew falls like rain in these dry countries. rosary. A little boat, made of the husk of a coco-nut, with a small sail, laden with a few grains of rice and some samples of our cargo, was launched into the waves from our deck, with the loud cheer of "salama!" from the whole crew. This was an offering to the evil spirit of the ocean. The Zigger group are on the northern shore of the sea; sterile and uninhabited rocks. These islands are of volcanic formation; on many of them craters are very distinct, having streams of cold lava down their sides, just as on the day the subterranean fires, of which these were the chimnies, went out. Deria Doulat, or the 'Wealth of the Seas,' was the magnificent appellation of our bark. She was built at Bownuggur, on the Cattawar coast, in the year 1750, for the Zanzibar trade, which was then, and is still, carried on from that port. Her bows were so low in the water, that you might have easily washed your hands in the sea from off her forecastle, while her lofty stern was upwards of twenty feet above the water. The gradual inclination of her deck, which ascended from the stem to the stern, was so considerable, that to pass from the forecastle aft, was a regular up-hill journey. An attempt had been made to rig her in the European-ship style; but such an attempt! Her sign was a horse rampant; but what connexion such a figure bore to her name, I could neither imagine or learn from those on board. After all, this treacherouslooking craft was freighted with a valuable cargo, like that of the Argosy of old-" with fine cloths, tissue, and embroidery." Eighty-five years had she triumphed over the perils of the voyage to Zanzibar and Jidda; but every lurch she now takes, speaks of her desire-to sink to rest. Our crew consisted of a captain, two mates or navigators, and about twelve seamen. These poor miserable creatures had hardly strength to hoist the main-topsail; but then we had a mighty host in our pilgrims. We had an hundred of these crowded on board-crowded, I may say, for our deck was not very roomy, although we were near two hundred tons in burden. The young and lusty, of which there were nearly forty, cheerfully lent their assistance on all occasions. As the voyage hitherto had been prosperous, and little to do beyond attending to the steerage, the pilgrims and the crew were very comfortable: they slept and chatted. Some, according to their own account, were journeying to die in the holy city; but, judging from their wan and wasted appearance, even this consummation will most probably be denied them. Some from Delhi or further Ind, some from the Malayan isles, others Persians, Kurds, and Afghans -all swell out this motley group. Some there were who had passed as many as fifteen years since they had left their homes, and "hoped to return again in the same time"-the pilgrimage of a life. Others, again, had set out from their native homes in companies of ten or twenty, and the survivor sighed as he related how his companions, one by one, had fallen by the way. Eighty thousand beings are thus led to one point from all corners of the earth, to assemble on one spot, there to adore, to worship. Three-fourths of the pilgrims are objects of charity; some of those on board our vessel had come from the outer border of Ind, without either money or any other means to defray the expenses of their journey-depending upon charity. Our cabin passengers consisted of seven Surat merchants-pilgrims: between them they owned the whole cargo. My companion, the captain, and I, made up our number to ten. We slept in charpois,* which we had hung up to cleets and eye-bolts in the beams. These cribs occupied the whole cabin, with the exception of a small space in the centre, which was kept clear for a dining Indian bedsteads. room. As we had divided ourselves into six messes, this spot was generally occupied by some of our party at their meals. At night, this space was tenanted by those amongst our crew who had the privilege of entrée ; but about midnight, as the air grew cool, those pilgrims who slept outside, nearest the door, always managed to find their way in; and then came the tug of warthe battle for places. 27th. Early this morning, we passed by the Sabaqien islands; these are fourteen barren rocks, of a pyramidal form, and of a volcanic origin. One of the group emitted flames about fourteen years ago; an event which some of our crew had witnessed. In the evening, still enjoying our fair wind, we passed Jebel Tier, an island about six miles in circumference, rising in a pyramidal form to about 1,300 feet above the sea. This was also a burning one about a century ago. A few fishermen reside on it, who live by fishing and catching turtle, the shell of which they carry to the ports on the coast and dispose of it, carrying back a stock of water. From the 27th to the 1st of May, the wind continued fair; but, knowing from experience that the south-east winds change very suddenly the beginning of this month, and then blow from the opposite quarter, without intermission, till September, we were all anxiety: with every lull we expected the change. We thought of our tattered sails; and the nearest port, Jidda, yet 150 miles off. The wind once foul, we were afraid our "pearl of the seas" would make but poor head against it. On the 1st we passed by several coral reefs and low sandy islets. These reefs and islands extend from each side of the sea to thirty miles from land, all coralline; therefore, of distinct formation from those we have already passed, and which lay out more in the centre of the sea. Many of the reefs we have passed to day are not more than half a mile in circuit; some were only ledges; and within the short distance of twenty yards from their edges there was no bottom with three hundred fathoms of line. Another extensive shoal, we had just safely passed, is placed on the maps at Marabia. The sea beat over it with great violence. This fearful patch of rocks lies out from the coast at least twenty miles, and as no warning from soundings tells the mariner of his vicinity to it, the sailors of such craft as the Deria Doulat, when passing at night, anxiously watch and listen for the sound of its breakers. The violence of the sea beating over this patch was frightful, and the roar of the breakers could have been heard some miles off. The reef is just even with the water's edge, which appears to be the extreme height to which the lithophite tribe raise their Babel towers of the deep. They then cease to build, and the further formation of the island depends upon the lodgment of sand. The sand islands attached to this reef are very low, and cannot be distinguished more than four miles off, and present to the mariner's view merely a strip, of a light foam colour, glaring with the rays of a powerful sun, which fiercely seizes on these light spots, and contrasts finely with the deep purple dye of this sea. May 2. Last night it fell calm; the heat was intolerable; the dryness of the atmosphere and the absence of the dew foretold the approach of a northwest wind. The swell increased, and lastly the wind, furious, and in our teeth. The "Wealth of the seas was now in jeopardy. After two hours' hard work, we managed to take two reefs in the topsail, and made all snug for the gale; which, after all, was only such a breeze as a good ship could have faced with double-reefed topsails and courses; and here were we labouring away on our beam-ends, and as wet as if we were in a bathing-machine. • Orneon of Ptolemy. Asiat.Journ. N.S.VOL.26.No.101. G The breeze freshened: our old captain became quite alarmed; the main-topsail split, and, having no other, we had to send it down upon deck to repair. At noon, the main-sail split; very lucky for us it did so, or it might have been blown away; for now it still served us. We left it just as it was; the rent being right down the middle, the force of the wind, which otherwise would have torn it perhaps across, now passed harmlessly through. We were very busy all day, and by sunset the main-topsail was sewed and rebent. The sea had risen considerably, and the wind blew fresh in squalls; one of which, unluckily for us, took our old craft as she was just rising to windward. This double resistance the topsail was not able to bear, and having so few "doors" to let the wind through, split right across. There was now no hope but to furl it. All the sail we had left was the split main-sail: as for repairing the other sails, it was the job of a week. Before sunset, we had stood in towards the northern shore, and had passed several reefs. These, reader, were to be repassed. We wore ship, and stood out again; darkness soon follows departed day in these latitudes, so the hope of seeing the dangers that beset us was very faint. The split main-sail just kept us to the wind, and gave us sufficient way through the water to steer by. About ten, I observed Aldebron, and some stars, in the observation cross, for a latitude; which gave us just three miles to windward of the reefs. The man at the helm was the only soul that we could find awake. Our gallant captain had taken large doses of opium, the two mates had followed his example, trusting to my navigating the vessel, and the crew were quietly dosing away the time in silent snug repose. A happy oblivion, when so many dangers beset us. After some trouble, we managed to get an answer from the chief mate, who said it was no use doing any thing, as we were in God's hands. So I think, or we never should have lived the night through, but from the thousand and one mercies vouchsafed to us. We passed any thing but a comfortable night. The sand islands and reefs which we had seen at sunset were uppermost in our thoughts; and to make the miseries of it more completely sad, the pilgrims kept up a continued groan, which every now and then was deepened, as we took a heavy lurch. The passengers in the cabin appeared to be quite sure of their safety, as they had a naval officer on board; and having heard that I had observed the stars, put this idea in their minds beyond all doubt. H. A. O. ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG OFFICER. THE fatal jungle-fever's rage is o'er, The worn-out mind is now at length at rest, His voice is heard not in the canvass hall, His footstep traced not on the pathway knoll, His name is known not on the muster-roll. No tender father soothed his anxious mind, No sister watched his cheeks' delusive glow. |