anchorage. This is now become more particularly advisable should any commercial intercourse take place with the Red Sea, on account of our being at war with the Americans, who are intimately acquainted with these ports, and whose ships are generally of a force superior to any of our merchant vessels likely to be employed in the service. The plan above-mentioned would not only benefit our own concerns, but prove a just return for the alliance of a chief, who has, by repeated and substantial acts of kindness, evinced his attachment to the British interests. If a small fort were erected for the guns, it might render them still more serviceable.
The ship not being likely to complete her stock of water in less than three days, I determined to take the opportunity of making a journey to Lahadj, the residence and capital of the Sultaun;[1] and as soon as we were satisfied respecting the vessel, we set out on this expedition, accompanied by Duroz, one of the Banians, under the protection of Aboo Buckr, the Dola of Aden, who had received orders from the Sultaun to attend us with a guard of his Ascari. This chieftain, who was descended from a tribe of Abada Bedowee, was one of the handsomest men I ever saw. He was taller than the generality of his countrymen, active, and of a daring disposition, and displayed a high spirit of manly independence that seemed to excite universal admiration.
The first part of our road conducted us round the bottom of Back Bay, near which stands a small building called "beit el mi," or the 'water-house,' now forming a shelter for the natives who bring supplies to the town,
- ↑ An early description of this place is given by Ludovico Barthema, who was made captive by the Moors and sent up here in the year 1504. He calls it Laji. His narrative is very entertaining, and, I conceive, accurate, from his having given in the peculiar dialect of the country several of the conversations which took place, the greater part of which I have succeeded in making out, notwithstanding their being set down from the ear only in Roman characters, by which the words have been often strangely jumbled together. This dialect is supposed by the learned and indefatigable Niebuhr, to be more nearly related to that of the ancient Hamyarites, than any other now spoken in Arabia. Vide Itinerario di Ludovico di Barthema, stampato a Vinegia 1535. The same journal is given in Ramusio, but without the Arabic. Vide Vol. I. p. 154, et seq.
