My complete recovery to the temperate
climate of Tayf, situated in the mountains behind Mekka, where I
afterwards proceeded.
The Djidda market little resembled those Negro markets, where a single
dollar would purchase two or three weeks' provision of dhourra and
butter. The price of every thing had risen here to an unusual height,
the imports from the interior of Arabia having entirely ceased, while
the whole population of the Hedjaz, now increased by a Turkish army and
its numerous followers, and a host of pilgrims who were daily coming in,
wholly depended for its supply upon the imports from Egypt. My little
stock of money was therefore spent during my illness, and before I was
sufficiently recovered to walk out. The Greek captain, though he had
shown himself ready to afford me the common services of humanity, was
not disposed to trust to the
[p.3] honour or respectability of a man whom he knew to be entirely
destitute of money. I was in immediate want of a sum sufficient to
defray my daily expenses, and, no other means being left to procure it,
I was compelled to sell my slave: I regretted much the necessity for
parting with him, as I knew he had some affection for me, and he was
very desirous to remain with me.
