MOCHA.

The Author of Scenes and Impressions,' sailed from Bombay, in Dec.1822, in an Arab vessel, rude and ancient in her construction as those which, in former and successive ages carried the rich freights of India for the Ptolemies, the Roman prefects, and the Arabian khalifs of Egypt.' At early dawn on the twelfth day, they made the high land of Arabia the Happy. The rising sun soon showed the savage

coast

Barren and bare; unsightly, unadorned.'

Νο grass of the rock, no flower of the heath, no shrub, no bird, no look of life. Cape Morbat was the point we first made, and we coasted it thence to the Bay of Aden, making, in succession, the land of Fartakh, Siout, Bogashoua, and Maculla. Near the last spot, we did see a boat or two stealing along the shore; but the features of the coast were uniform - dark, waste, wild; the rocks not very lofty, black, and scorched at their summits; here, craggy and broken, with the waves dashing at their feet; there, smoother, with brown and arid sides, and with beds or belts of yellow sand below. Such is the aspect of Araby the Blest; and for 1,800 miles from the point we first made, to the shores of Midian, in the Gulf of Akaba, there

is little, very little variety. Like the rough and

russet coat of the Persian pomegranate, which gives little promise of the rich and crimson pulp within, so Arabia, all forbidding as she looks, can boast of Yemen and her sparkling springs, of her frankincense and precious gums, her spices and coffee-berries, her luscious dates, and her honey of the rock. But the streams which descend from those fertile regions, never reach the sea; they are drank up by the sands; and the long line of coast, excepting three or four 26*

VOL, I.

spots where the merchant and the mariner have found a haven, or where some pastoral tribe has dug a well, is but a burning solitude.

'For half a day, we dropped anchor in the back bay of Aden, but, as we were six miles from the town, our nakhoda did not wish us to go on shore. The scenery of this bay is of a very wild and savage character; the rocks black and ragged. It blew fresh too, and was cloudy, and the whole picture was darkly beautiful.' Cape Aden is a very lofty and steep rock, and is discovered between fifteen and twenty leagues off at sea. From the summit, on which are some ruined towers, you command an extent of ten leagues inland. The road is described as the best in all Arabia. In the account of a Voyage to Arabia, performed by the French in 1708-10, edited by M. La Roque,* Aden is thus described:

This city is situated at the foot of high mountains, which surround it almost on every side; according to Abulfeda, in long. 70°, lat. 12°. There are five or six forts at the top of these mountains, with curtains, and many other fortifications in the narrow passes. The water is thence conveyed by a handsome aqueduct, to a large reservoir about a quarter of a league from the city, which furnishes all the inhabitants with very good water, there being no other to be had at Aden; and I know not by what authority our geographers make a river pass through that city. This place is enclosed with walls, which are now in a very bad condition, especially on the sea-side, where, however, there are some platforms at certain intervals, with five or six batteries of brass cannon, some of them carrying sixty-pound balls, It is believed that they are part of the artillery which Solyman II, left behind him upon taking the city, and conquering almost all the country, which the Turks have since been obliged

* The English translation is in 12mo. London, 1726,

3

There is but one

to abandon to the Arabian princes. way to approach Aden on the land side, and that is by a very narrow causeway, running out into the sea in the manner of a peninsula. The head of this causeway is commanded by a fort, with guards set at particular distances; and within a cannon-shot further, there is another fort of an oval figure, with forty pieces of great cannon, 'mounted on several batteries, and a garrison; so that it would be impossible to attempt a descent on that side; and on the way of communication between the city and this place, there is still another fort, with twelve guns and a garrison. Toward the sea, by which this town is indeed accessible, there is a bay, eight or nine leagues wide at the opening, divided into two roads; one of which is very large, and pretty far from the city; the other, less and nearer, which is called the harbour. This latter is about a league broad, taking the breadth from the citadel, which commands it with fifty guns, to the point where the ports which I have been describing lie. You may anchor all over it, in from eighteen to twenty and twenty-two fathom.

'The city is considerably large, and one may still see several handsome houses two stories high, and flat-roofed, as also abundance of rubbish and ruins. It may be easily judged from what remains, and from so advantageous a situation, that Aden was once a famous city, and of great importance, a strong place, and the principal bulwark of Arabia Felix. The territory around, though rather confined, is very pleasant, with a great deal of vegetation growing along the sides of the mountains.

'It must be owned, that nothing can be finer in its kind than the baths here: they are all lined with marble or jasper, and covered with a handsome dome, having a hole at the top to let in the light, adorned on the inside with galleries, supported by magnificent

pillars. The whole building is very conveniently divided into chambers, closets, and other vaulted rooms, which all join to the principal hall, where the baths are covered by the dome. From hence, in our

way to our lodging, we had to pass through the market-place, where we saw store of meat, fish, and other things that seemed to us very good in their several kinds.'

Aden has been celebrated from the remotest periods for its commerce and its excellent harbour. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, it maintained an extensive intercourse with India and China, and was the entrep ́t of the riches of the East. But it was devastated in the wars between the Turks and Portuguese, and its commerce has been transferred to Mocha.*

'It was a bright, a laughingly bright day,' continues the picturesque Writer whose voyage we are pursuing, when, with a fine, fair breeze, we sailed through the Gate of Tears (Bab al Mondoub); for so did the ancient Arabs name those narrow straits at the mouth of the Red Sea, regarded by their early navigators as so perilous, and so often, indeed, fatal to their inexperience.† We had a sail in company

*Aden is so much better situated for trade with Berbera, in consequence of both monsoons being favourable for passing and repassing, that the greater part of the myrrh and gum-arabic is carried to that place, where the L'anians of Mocha have each a partner established to conduct their business. The frankincense is chiefly cultivated near to Cape Gardafui, and is exported from a harbour of the Samaulies, called Bunder Cassim near Djebel Feel (Cape Felix). The Samaulies, who inhabit the coast from the Straits to Cape Gardafui, have a kind of navigation-act, by which they exclude the Arab vessels from their ports, and bring the produce of their country either to Aden or Mocha in their own dows.' VALENTIA's Travels, vol. ii, p 354.

The Straits, according to Lord Valentia, are not above three miles wide.

here, and loud and joyous was the greeting between the crews, as we both cast anchor in a little bay, just within the lesser Bab, by which we entered. From this anchorage, and, indeed, all the morning, while making for, and passing the straits, we had the black, lofty shore of Africa in view, with its Cape of Burials; for, to the fancy of the ancient Arab, the shrill spirit of the storm sat dim' upon the rocky brow of Cape Guadafui, and enjoyed the death of the mariner."

'We ran down upon Mocha with a full sail on the following morning. The town looks white and cheerful, the houses lofty, and have a square, solid appearance; the roadstead is almost open, being only protected by two narrow spits of sand, on one of which is a round castle, and on the other an insignificant fort. A date-grove adjoins the city, and extends nearly two miles along the southern beach; a pleasing object for the eye to repose upon, which is fatigued, if you gaze in any other direction, by one unvarying picture of brown and desolate sterility.

'So far from the sea-ports of Arabia and India resembling each other, to the commonly observant eye, the contrast is striking. You have turbans and loose garments, but they are different both in fashion and materials. You have brown and black complexions; you have the clothed and the naked; but they differ, both in feature, form, and gesture, from those whom you have left behind. Under the coarse awnings of its narrow bazars, you meet the welldressed merchants in robes of woollen cloth, and from above the folds of the snow white turban, you see a red woollen cap, with a tassel of purple silk. At every step, you meet the black, the half-naked Abyssinian, straight as the young areca, with a nose sufficiently prominent to give expression to his features, and having his curled woolly hair died with a reddish yellow, the foppery of his country. Then there is the